Tungsten Boride and Future Nuclear Fusion Applications

(Tungsten Boride and Future Nuclear Fusion Applications)

tungsten boride (WB) is one of the most stable and hard materials used in fusion applications. It combines the well-known advantages of tungsten with boron’s thermo-mechanical properties, and is therefore an attractive alloy for future nuclear fusion technology.

Tungsten is the most abundant element on earth and has been used in a variety of applications for its strong and lightweight properties. But it also exhibits thermo-mechanical deficiency at high temperatures and thereby suffers from limitations in mechanical performance in extreme irradiation environments such as in a nuclear fusion reactor. To improve its mechanical properties tungsten is commonly alloyed with elements/materials such as boron, carbon, molybdenum, and nickel, aimed at minimizing the irradiation damage on it.

In order to understand the physico-chemical properties of tungsten boride and its potential for future nuclear fusion applications, several experimental studies on the material have been conducted over the years. This research has led to a better understanding of boron’s interaction with tungsten and other elements, and has also provided insights into boron-rich materials with rich and complex crystal structures.

The boron atoms of the hP20-WB4 structure are connected to the tungsten atoms by short bonds. This leads to a void-like three-dimensional network of boron atoms with tungsten atoms sitting in the voids (Fig. S1). The space group P63/mmc has been established by Romans and Krug2, and the material is believed to have a lattice constant of 5.2 A for a and 6.34 A for c.

(Tungsten Boride and Future Nuclear Fusion Applications)