Porous silicon carbide and aluminum oxide with unidirectional open porosity as model target materials for radioisotope beam production

TL;DR

This paper presents the fabrication of porous silicon carbide and aluminum oxide materials with controlled microstructures using ice-templating, aiming to serve as model targets for radioisotope beam production and irradiation testing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fabrication method for porous SiC and Al2O3 with tailored microstructures for use as irradiation target prototypes.

Findings

Produced materials with controlled porosity using ice-templating

Evaluated mechanical integrity based on FLUKA energy deposition spectra

Materials are intended for irradiation aging studies

Abstract

New silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) of a tailor-made microstructure were produced using the ice-templating technique, which permits controlled pore formation conditions within the material. These prototypes will serve to verify aging of the new advanced target materials under irradiation with proton beams. Before this, the evaluation of their mechanical integrity was made based on the energy deposition spectra produced by FLUKA codes.