ВЛИЯНИЕ ВЫСОКОФЛЮЕНСНОГО ИОННОГО ОБЛУЧЕНИЯ НА СТРУКТУРУ И МЕХАНИЧЕСКИЕ СВОЙСТВА ПОКРЫТИЙ ИЗ НАНОСТРУКТУРИРОВАННЫХ НИТРИДОВ ВЫСОКОЭНТРОПИЙНЫХ СПЛАВОВ (Ti, Hf, Zr, V, Nb)

The effect of high-fluence ion irradiation of nanostructured coatings based on high-entropy compound (Ti, Hf, Zr, V, Nb) N was studied. The irradiation was performed using helium ions with an energy of 500 keV in the fluence range of 5 · 10 16 –3 · 10 17 ion/cm 2 . The thermal annealing at 773 K during 15 min was done with the aim of modeling conditions of this material exploitation in a nuclear reactor. The elemental composition, structure, morphology, as well as mechanical properties of (Ti, Hf, Zr, V, Nb) N coatings were investigated before and after the irradiation. According to the results of this study, there are no significant structural or phase changes in coatings after irradiation, except a strong fragmentation of grains to a size less than 10 nm. Also, there are not observed any changes in the elemental composition. The non-linear behavior of coating hardness on irradiation fluence was detected. It can be argued according to the experimental results that nanostructured coatings (Ti, Hf, Zr, V, Nb)N are radiation-resistant and perspective as fuel claddings in nuclear reactors.