Phase and composition analysis of the uranium-2 weight percent niobium alloy after heat treatments

Samples of U-2Nb alloy were prepared by arc melting and the resulting structures undergone 3 kinds of thermal treatments examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The niobium concentrations of alpha-phase and gamma-phase in the U-2Nb alloy were determined from lattice constants. During this study it was found that the main reason which caused changes in the X-ray diffraction pattern of the surfaces of the samples before and after electropolishing was not machining but the preferred etching of α-phase of the two-phase (α + γ) U-2Nb alloy. So that a new effective method for determination of phases of U-2Nb alloy was established