Interfacial microstructures and hardness distributions of vacuum plasma spraying W-coated ODS ferritic steels for fusion plasma facing applications

In the present study, interfacial microstructures and hardness distributions of W-coated ODS steels as plasma facing structural materials were investigated. A vacuum plasma spraying (VPS) technique was employed to fabricate a W layer on the surface of the ODS ferritic steel substrates. The microstructural observations revealed that the VPS-W has very fine grains aligned toward the spraying direction, and a favorable interface between W and ODS ferritic steels by a mechanical inter-locking without an intermetallic layer. However, crack-type defects were found in VPS-W. Because a brittle inter-diffused layer does not exist at the joint interface, the hardness was gradually distributed in the joint region. After neutron irradiation, irradiation hardening significantly occurred in the VPS-W. However, the hardening of VPS-W was less than that of bulk W irradiated at 773 K. Thus, the VPS is considered to be one of the promising ways to join dissimilar materials between W and ODS steels, which can avoid the formation of an interfacial intermetallic layer and create favorable irradiation hardening resistance on the W coated layer.