Palladium and ruthenium supported silver migration in 3C-silicon carbide

Surrogate TRISO particles were infiltrated with a Pd Ag mixture and heat treated at 1000 °C to investigate the effect of Pd on Ag transport through current state of the art TRISO coatings for use in HTGRs. The experiment was repeated with Ru instead of Pd because of the similarities in the reaction between Pd and Ru with SiC. It was found that both Pd and Ru form their respective silicides after heat treatment together with the simultaneous precipitation of graphite. In both cases Ag was concentrated along the leading edge of the reaction zone which itself was concentrated along grain boundaries. However, the effect of Pd was much more pronounced than that of Ru making Ru at most a secondary contributor to Ag migration through SiC in TRISO fuel.