Fabrication and characterization of SiC and ZrC composite coating on TRISO coated particle

SiC coating is widely suggested as structural materials for nuclear application due to its excellent high irradiation resistance properties and high temperature mechanical properties. SiC coating on TRistructural-ISOtropic (TRISO) coated fuel particles plays an important role as a protective layer from radioactive fission gas and a mechanical structural layer. TRISO coating layer was deposited on a spherical particle by a FBCVD method. The ZrO₂ spherical particles were used as a simulant kernel. TRISO coating layers consisting of a porous buffer layer, an inner PyC layer were sequentially deposited before depositing SiC or ZrC coating layer. In order investigate the phase of each composite coating layer, Raman analysis was conducted. SiC, ZrC coating and SiC/ZrC composite coating on spherical particle were successfully deposited via FBCVD method by adjusting source gas flow rate. In the SiC and ZrC composite coating, SiC phase and ZrC phase were observed by XRD and SEM analysis. In the condition of 100 sccm of ZrCl₄, 25 sccm of CH₄, and 30 sccm of MTS, only two phases of SiC and ZrC were observed and two phases are located with clean grain boundary