Irradiation simulation of zirconium using high energy argon implantation

In order to simulate the irradiation damage, the argon ion was implanted in the zirconium with fluence ranging from 1×1016 to 1×1017 ions/cm2, using accelerating implanter at an extraction voltage of 190 kV at liquid nitrogen temperature. Then the effect of argon ion implantation on the aqueous corrosion behavior of zirconium was studied. The valence states of elements in the surface layer of the samples were analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Glancing angle X-ray diffraction (GAXRD) was employed to examine the phase transformation due to the argon ion implantation. The potentiodynamic polarization technique was employed to evaluate the aqueous corrosion resistance of implanted zirconium in a 1 M H2SO4 solution. From XPS, there existed adsorbed carbon and a little of oxygen (depth less than 20 nm) in the surface of samples, zirconium changed from zirconia to metallic zirconium along the depth direction. From GAXRD, the argon-implanted samples are little oxidized. It was found that the corrosion resistance of implanted samples declined with increasing the fluence, which is attributed to the removing of oxide protection layer and the irradiation damage.