Electrochemical synthesis of boron-containing coatings on Mg alloy for thermal neutron shielding

The work provides the results of the one-step formation of boron-containing coatings on an Mg-Mn-Ce alloy by plasma electrolytic oxidation. The results of studies of the composition, structure and morphology of heteroxide coatings are presented. It was established that the boron is contained in the coating mainly in the form of B or B2 O3 . The introduction of B changes the color of coatings, and also helps to increase their porosity. The method of determining the full cross section of the interaction of thermal neutron absorption efficiency by samples material using the installation of neutron-activation analysis based on 252 Cf was developed. It was shown that the introduction of boron into the formed coatings allows to increase the macroscopic cross-section of the interaction of samples with thermal neutrons by 3.8 times. This effect opens the potential for the use of synthesized material in the field of nuclear technologies and aerospace industry. (c) 2023 Chongqing University. Publishing services provided by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ ) Peer review under responsibility of Chongqing University

Automated summary

The study presents the one-step formation of boron-containing coatings on an Mg-Mn-Ce alloy by plasma electrolytic oxidation. The composition, structure, and morphology of the heteroxide coatings are analyzed. The research finds that boron is mainly present in the coatings as B or B2O3, which changes the color and enhances the porosity of the coatings. Additionally, the study develops a method to determine the thermal neutron absorption efficiency of the material and shows that the introduction of boron significantly increases the interaction of the coatings with thermal neutrons, opening up potential applications in nuclear technologies and the aerospace industry.