High temperature efficient deuterium permeation and oxidation (Al,Ti)N barriers deposited on stainless steel

We have shown that reduction of deuterium permeation through AISI 316L stainless steel can be obtained by the deposition of an (Al,Ti)N coating: a 1.7-μm-thick coating was able to reduce the deuterium permeation flux by a factor 100–1000 in the 473–873 K temperature range. This result is related to the very low diffusivity of the deuterium migrating species in the nitride: in the examined temperature range the evaluated values of the deuterium diffusion coefficient are on the order of 10−12–10−11 cm2/s with an activation energy as low as 0.37±0.03 eV: this activation energy may be related to the defect microstructure of the sample. The (Al,Ti)N layer, which is produced on an industrial scale as an anticorrosive and wear resistant coating, has shown good properties as an oxidation barrier during thermal treatment in air at temperatures up to 873 K.