Deuterium permeation through copper with trapping impurities

Abstract

The time dependence of the deuterium permeation rate through impurity-doped copper membranes was measured in the temperature range 300–700 °C. Copper membranes that were doped with Er, Zr, and Ti all exhibited permeabilities that were nearly equal to pure copper, but the apparent diffusivities were smaller than those for pure copper by factors of 10–100 over the experimental temperature range. The permeation characteristics of these alloys appear to be altered from those for pure copper due to trapping of deuterium at sites that are associated with the impurity atoms. It is shown that the deuterium permeation rate through the copper alloys can be expressed in an analytical form that is analogous to that for pure copper, except that the apparent diffusivity takes on a value which depends on the trap concentration and binding energy for deuterium. The binding energies that are calculated for the alloys are used to determine the lag time which is required for deuterium or hydrogen to permeate through initially evacuated membranes. The lag times for copper alloys containing about 1% Er, Zr, or Ti are many orders of magnitude longer than for pure copper at room temperature. Copper alloys containing Cr do not appear to exhibit deuterium trapping. Nuclear reaction and backscattering analyses were used to help determine the effect or surface oxides on the permeation measurements.