Abstract:
The chemical nature of depleted uranium is very active and prone to oxidation corrosion in nature environment. In this study, CrN
x film was prepared on the surface of depleted uranium by unbalance magnetron sputtering ion plating to improve its corrosion resistance. The Xray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to characterize the chemical state and depth profiles of Cr, N and O elements. XRD was employed to examine the phase structure of CrN
x film. The corrosion behavior of the samples was measured by using polarization curves (
E/I). The results show that CrN
x film prepared by unbalance magnetron sputtering has good density and corrosion resistance. The phase composition of CrN
x films is composed with Cr, CrN and Cr
2N when the N
2 flow is lower. After a layer of CrN
x is deposited on the surface of uranium, the corrosion potential increases about 465 mV, while the corrosion current density decreases significantly. It is indicated that the corrosion resistance of depleted uranium is effectively improved after depositing CrN
x thin film by unbalance magnetron sputtering.