Discovery of the shape controllable cavity surrounded by facets in ceramics

Serizawa, Hiroyuki  

My investigation on cavities in ceramics was triggered by the unexpected discovery of a polyhedral cavity in a UO matrix. The SEM image that attracted my attention was a cavity observed in the fracture surface of a single crystal of UO that was heat-treated in helium at 90 MPa, followed by annealing at 1573 K for 1 h. It was clear that the cavity was a negative crystal that was formed by the precipitation of helium during heat treatment after Hot Isostatic Pressing (HIP) injection. In a series of experiments, I noticed that the shape of the negative crystal changes depending on the heat-treatment history. A truncated octahedron-type, an octa-triacontahedron-type, and a pentacontahedron-type negative crystal were observed. Our study implies that the shape of the negative crystal should change depending on the helium inner pressure enclosed in the negative crystal.