21st century materials are facing greater demands as they are used in ever more extreme environments, such as high-pressure steam for power generation, solar thermal storage systems, and accident tolerant nuclear fuel assemblies. No single material currently possesses all the properties required to handle such environments, and so there has been a surge in research into composite materials that are for example both corrosion resistant and durable at high temperatures. The use of these materials must be approved in situations defined as "beyond design basis" which can occur more frequently due to defence in depth requirements. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines defence in depth as "creating multiple independent and redundant layers of protection and response to failures, accidents, or fires in power plants". To meet these demands, research needs to push the boundaries of coatings, substrates, and their interfaces.
This Research Topic is focused on ceramics, composites, and their substrates which aim to combine the refractory and corrosion resistance of ceramics with the ductility and formability of metal. While at first the concept is appealing, in application it has issues, one being that as the ceramic transforms because of damage induced by the environment, it is no longer compatible with the substrate. A coating can fail due to the fact that ceramic coatings are extremely brittle and hard to repair once in place, which can result in de-bonding occurring during the expansion/contraction cycle of the alloy substrate. Another consequence of standard coatings being brittle is that corrosion can easily form at failure cracks, when substrate alloy is exposed to the corrosive agent. One possible solution is the coating of metals with "self-healing ceramics", or ceramics that are disordered at the outset.
This Research Topic seeks to highlight ceramics, composites, and the methods of application that are compatible with alloys or intermetallics that are routinely used in the example applications above, such as stainless steel, zirconium alloys, and MAX phases.
Areas of particular interest to be covered in this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
• Self-healing ceramics
• High-temperature ceramics
• High entropy alloy ceramics
• Nuclear alloys
• SiC/SIC composites
• MAX phases
• Coating methods
All manuscript types are welcome.
Keywords:
coatings, radiation damage, corrosion, ceramics, nuclear fuel, radiation tolerance, nuclear alloys, MAX phases, coating methods
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
21st century materials are facing greater demands as they are used in ever more extreme environments, such as high-pressure steam for power generation, solar thermal storage systems, and accident tolerant nuclear fuel assemblies. No single material currently possesses all the properties required to handle such environments, and so there has been a surge in research into composite materials that are for example both corrosion resistant and durable at high temperatures. The use of these materials must be approved in situations defined as "beyond design basis" which can occur more frequently due to defence in depth requirements. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission defines defence in depth as "creating multiple independent and redundant layers of protection and response to failures, accidents, or fires in power plants". To meet these demands, research needs to push the boundaries of coatings, substrates, and their interfaces.
This Research Topic is focused on ceramics, composites, and their substrates which aim to combine the refractory and corrosion resistance of ceramics with the ductility and formability of metal. While at first the concept is appealing, in application it has issues, one being that as the ceramic transforms because of damage induced by the environment, it is no longer compatible with the substrate. A coating can fail due to the fact that ceramic coatings are extremely brittle and hard to repair once in place, which can result in de-bonding occurring during the expansion/contraction cycle of the alloy substrate. Another consequence of standard coatings being brittle is that corrosion can easily form at failure cracks, when substrate alloy is exposed to the corrosive agent. One possible solution is the coating of metals with "self-healing ceramics", or ceramics that are disordered at the outset.
This Research Topic seeks to highlight ceramics, composites, and the methods of application that are compatible with alloys or intermetallics that are routinely used in the example applications above, such as stainless steel, zirconium alloys, and MAX phases.
Areas of particular interest to be covered in this Research Topic include, but are not limited to:
• Self-healing ceramics
• High-temperature ceramics
• High entropy alloy ceramics
• Nuclear alloys
• SiC/SIC composites
• MAX phases
• Coating methods
All manuscript types are welcome.
Keywords:
coatings, radiation damage, corrosion, ceramics, nuclear fuel, radiation tolerance, nuclear alloys, MAX phases, coating methods
Important Note:
All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.