Electrodeposition of metallic tungsten coating from binary oxide molten salt on low activation steel substrate

Tungsten is considered a promising plasma facing armor material for future fusion devices. An electrodeposited metallic tungsten coating from Na2WO4-WO3 binary oxide molten salt on low activation steel (LAS) substrate was investigated in this paper. Tungsten coatings were deposited under various pulsed currents conditions at 1173 K in atmosphere. Cathodic current density and pulsed duty cycle were investigated for pulsed current electrolysis. The crystal structure and microstructure of tungsten coatings were characterized by X-ray diffractometry, scanning electron microscopy, and energy X-ray dispersive analysis techniques. The results indicated that pulsed current density and duty cycle significantly influence tungsten nucleation and electro-crystallization phenomena. The average grain size of the coating becomes much larger with increasing cathodic current density, which demonstrates that appropriate high cathodic current density can accelerate the growth of grains on the surface of the substrate. The micro-hardness of tungsten coatings increases with the increasing thickness of coatings; the maximum micro-hardness is 482 HV. The prepared tungsten coatings have a smooth surface, a porosity of less than 1%, and an oxygen content of 0.024 wt%. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.