Xenon-metal pair formation in UO2 investigated using DFT+U

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Malakkal, Linu, Zhou, Shuxiang, Mishra, Himani, Ke, Jia Hong, Jiang, Chao, He, Lingfeng, Biswas, Sudipta
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Malakkal, Linu
Zhou, Shuxiang
Mishra, Himani
Ke, Jia Hong
Jiang, Chao
He, Lingfeng
Biswas, Sudipta
author_facet Malakkal, Linu
Zhou, Shuxiang
Mishra, Himani
Ke, Jia Hong
Jiang, Chao
He, Lingfeng
Biswas, Sudipta
contents A recent experimental study on a spent uranium dioxide (UO2) fuel sample from Belgium Reactor 3 (BR3) identified a unique pair structure formed by the noble metal phase (NMP) and fission gas (xenon [Xe]) precipitate. However, the fundamental mechanism behind this structure remains unclear. The present study aims to provide an understanding of the interaction between five different metal precipitates (molybdenum [Mo], ruthenium [Ru], palladium [Pd], technetium [Tc], and rhodium [Rh]) and the Xe fission gas atoms in UO2, by using density functional theory (DFT) in combination with the Hubbard U correction to compute the formation energies involved. All DFT+U calculations were performed with occupation matrix control to ensure antiferromagnetic ordering of UO2. The calculated formation and binding energies of the Xe and solid fission products in the NMP reveal that these metal precipitates form stable pair structures with Xe. Notably, the formation energy of Xe-metal pairs is lower than that of the isolated single defects in all instances, with Pd and Mo showing the most favourable binding energy, likely accounting for the observed pair structure formation.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_13744
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Xenon-metal pair formation in UO2 investigated using DFT+U
Malakkal, Linu
Zhou, Shuxiang
Mishra, Himani
Ke, Jia Hong
Jiang, Chao
He, Lingfeng
Biswas, Sudipta
Materials Science
A recent experimental study on a spent uranium dioxide (UO2) fuel sample from Belgium Reactor 3 (BR3) identified a unique pair structure formed by the noble metal phase (NMP) and fission gas (xenon [Xe]) precipitate. However, the fundamental mechanism behind this structure remains unclear. The present study aims to provide an understanding of the interaction between five different metal precipitates (molybdenum [Mo], ruthenium [Ru], palladium [Pd], technetium [Tc], and rhodium [Rh]) and the Xe fission gas atoms in UO2, by using density functional theory (DFT) in combination with the Hubbard U correction to compute the formation energies involved. All DFT+U calculations were performed with occupation matrix control to ensure antiferromagnetic ordering of UO2. The calculated formation and binding energies of the Xe and solid fission products in the NMP reveal that these metal precipitates form stable pair structures with Xe. Notably, the formation energy of Xe-metal pairs is lower than that of the isolated single defects in all instances, with Pd and Mo showing the most favourable binding energy, likely accounting for the observed pair structure formation.
title Xenon-metal pair formation in UO2 investigated using DFT+U
topic Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.13744