Technology Blog

Researchers have discovered mechanisms critical to interactions between hot plasma and surfaces facing the plasma inside a thermonuclear fusion reactor, part of work aimed at developing coatings capable of withstanding the grueling conditions inside the reactors.Fusion powers the stars and could lead to a limitless supply of clean energy. A fusion power plant would produce 10 times more energy than a conventional nuclear fission reactor, and because the deuterium fuel is contained in seawater, a fusion reactor's fuel supply would be virtually inexhaustible.Research at Purdue University focuses on the "plasma-material interface," a crucial region where the inner lining of a fusion reactor comes into contact with the extreme heat of the plasma. Nuclear and materials engineers are harnessing nanotechnology to define tiny features in the coating in work aimed at creating new "plasma-facing" materials tolerant to radiation damage, said Jean Paul Allain, an assistant professor of nuclear enginee

"We now have an understanding of how the lithiated graphite controls the recycling of hydrogen," Allain said.
"The key is to understand how to exploit these self-organizing structures and patterns to provide the recycling and also to self-heal, or replenish the pumping conditions we started with," he said.
"We will bring the samples in and study them right there, and we will be able to do the characterization in real time to see what happens to the surfaces," Allain said. "We're also going to use computational modeling to connect the fundamental physics learned in our experiments and what we observe inside the tokamak."