Research on Protective Coating on Inner Surface of Alloy Tube

Materials are one of the most important factors which limit reactor development. Molten salt not only used as the coolant but used as application in which fissile materials and fission products are dissolved in Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). Therefore the corrosion resistance of structure materials is the one of most important aspects for application in MSRs. Compatibility and chemical stability with the molten salt should be considered for some common structural alloys such as Incoloy-800H. In this research, the pure nickel coating was obtained by electroplating on the inner surface of nickel alloy to improve the corrosion resistance. However, there are some problems for plating on the inner surface of tube. For example the current is shielded and the anode is easy to passivate. The inner anode was used for solving these problems in this study. Pure nickel coating was obtain and the microstructure and properties of coating were analysed using this method. The thickness, hardness and microstructure of coating were observed by metallographic microscope, micro hardness tester and field emission scanning electron microscope, and the influence of deposition duration and annealing treatment duration on properties were analysed. Thermal shock performance was investigated as well. The results showed that the coating thickness increased linearly with the increasing of plating durations and the size of grain increased with the durations as well, the surface of coating became inhomogeneous correspondingly. The hardness of coating changed as the change of durations of annealing treatment. The thermal shock test showed that bonding strength of coating with substrate was good.