RESUMEN
An important challenge for modelling transport in materials for energy applications is that in most applications they are polycrystalline, and hence it is critical to understand the properties in the presence of grain boundaries. Moreover, most grain boundaries are not pristine stoichiometric interfaces and hence dopants are likely to play a significant role. In this paper, we describe our recent work on using atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to model the effect of doped grain boundaries on oxygen transport of fluorite structured UO2. UO2, much like other fluorite grain boundaries, are found to be sinks for oxygen vacancy segregation relative to the grain interior, thus facilitating oxygen transport. Fission products further enhance diffusivity via strong interactions between the impurities and oxygen defects. Doping produces a striking structural alteration in the Σ5 class of grain boundaries that enhances oxygen diffusivity even further. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Energy materials for a low carbon future'.
RESUMEN
We investigated atomic hydrogen solubility in UO2 using DFT. We predict that hydrogen energetically prefers to exist as a hydride ion rather than form a hydroxyl group by 0.27 eV, and that on diffusion hydrogen's charge state will change. The activation energy for conversion of hydride to hydroxyl is 0.94 eV.