Russia invents special coating material that protects against radiation and heals itself

Scientists at Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) are developing a nano-coating material that functions as radiation protection and self-healing.

This material will help protect electronic equipment and significantly increase the radiation resistance of many materials in the nuclear and space industries.

This new material effectively protects electronic devices from the damaging effects of radiation.

The new class of anti-radiation materials not only greatly improves the safety of nuclear facilities, but also effectively protects electronic equipment from the damaging effects of radiation. That protection comes in handy in space, where cosmic rays can easily destroy electronic devices.

Associate Professor Roman Laptev, Department of Applied Physics of the Faculty of Nuclear Science and Engineering, Tomsk Polytechnic University explains: 'The harmful effects of radiation on materials are due to the influence of the hole effect. , when atoms are dislodged from the lattice or have foreign atoms trapped in them. Both types of harm can build up and cause equipment failure. After a long period of irradiation on our coating with proton flux, the defect density (lattice) either remained unchanged, or decreased due to the effect of defect shifting to the boundary region of the layer and self-cancelling. each other there'.

Researchers at TPU believe that this coating's properties could increase the radiation resistance of a variety of materials in the atomic and space industries. This composite coating, formed by magnetron sputtering, is composed of five layers of different materials with a thickness of about 100 nanometers.

Associate Professor Laptev added: 'Structure analysis by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray spectroscopy showed that after irradiation, the potential across the entire structure was increased due to proton accumulation. Both calculations and experiments make it clear that there has been a shift of the position of the zirconium molecules from the optimal position and the formation of regions of low electron density near the sites that have been annihilated during the decomposition process. charge' (explain: when an electron collides with a positron, the two particles will self-destruct, creating energy and causing an empty region – nd).

To analyze the structure of defects in the crystal lattice before and after irradiation, the TPU scientists used a highly sensitive method of extended Doppler spectroscopy using positron beam currents with high energy levels. calculated in advance.

This research was carried out under the cooperation project No. 20-79-10343 of the Russian Science Foundation and the Jelepov Atomic Problems Laboratory. In the future, the Research team plans to find new types of materials that are effective at higher irradiation doses.