The foil equilibration method for carbon in sodium

Among the non-metallic impurities in sodium, carbon plays an important role since at high temperatures the structural materials exposed to sodium are subject to carburization and decarburization depending on the carbon activity of the sodium. Carburization of austenitic stainless steels leads to reduction in ductility and fatigue properties whereas decarburization results in a decrease in the high temperature creep strength. A knowledge of the carbon activities in sodium will help understanding of the carbon transfer phenomena in operating sodium systems of the fast reactors, and also carbon diffusion, microstructural stability and mechanical behaviour of materials under different service conditions. An understanding of the carbon behaviour in sodium becomes difficult in view of the complexities of the different species present as elemental carbon, carbide, acetylide, carbonate, and cyanide. Carbon estimation techniques for sodium presently in use are: chemical analytical methods, on-line carbon monitors, and oil equilibration method. Various chemical methods have been developed for the estimation of different species like acetylide, cyanide, carbonate, elemental carbon, and total carbon in sodium. All these methods are time consuming and subject to various errors. The on-line monitors developed for carbon in sodium are able to give continuous indication of carbon activities and have higher sensitivity than the chemical methods. A still more simple method for the determination of carbon activities is by the foil equilibration first published by Natesan et al. Because of its simplicity like the vanadium wire equilibration for oxygen it is being used widely for the estimation of carbon activities in sodium systems. Carbon concentrations in operating sodium systems estimated by this procedure by applying solubility relation to carbon activities have yielded very low values of carbon, lower than the sensitivity limits of the chemical estimation methods. Foil equilibration has been used to determine the carbon potential in sodium systems in order to explain carburization and decarburization of steels in high temperature sodium systems of fast breeder reactors