Two-Step Fabrication of BPO₄ Ceramics with Acid Corrosion Resistance and Neutron Shielding Performance

Abstract

There has been an urgent demand for novel neutron shielding materials (NSMs) with high mechanical strength and low acid corrosion rate to be used in compact shielding design. In this contribution, BPO4 ceramics (BPCs), one of the candidates for such materials, was successfully fabricated by a two-step method using H3BO3 and H3PO4 as raw materials. The evolution of the microstructures was then investigated, followed by testing of mechanical/thermal properties, acid corrosion resistance, and neutron shielding performance. The experimental results indicated that the calcination temperature as well as H3BO3 content in raw materials intuitively affected the densification process of the BPCs. The as-pared BPCs showed reliable mechanical properties with maximum CMOR, compressive strength and elastic modulus of 26.99 MPa, 86.89 MPa and 28.42 GPa, respectively, which also showed a high neutron shielding rate and low acid corrosion rate of 65.11% and 0.016%. The obtained results imply that the BPCs was a promising NSM for use in compact shielding design.

Keywords

• BPO₄ ceramics
• mechanical properties
• acid corrosion
• neutron shielding