Densification and grain growth of UO₂ and MnO-UO₂ during pressureless sintering

Large-grain UO2 has attracted much attention due to its advantage of suppressing fission gas release by reducing the specific surface area of grain boundaries. In this study, a single grain growth additive MnO is selected to modify UO2 by conventional pressureless sintering method. The effect of MnO modification on UO2 densification and grain growth at temperatures between 1200 and 1700 degrees C was investigated in detail. 0.5 wt%MnO-UO2 pellets can reach nearly 95% T.D. when sintered at 1200 degrees C for 24 h. An average grain size greater than 300 mu m can be obtained at 1700 degrees C for 24 h. A series of sintering experiments were designed and conducted to verify the specific mechanism of MnO on the grain growth of UO2. The classical grain growth kinetics indicates that the grain growth exponent of MnO modified UO2 in the early stage is 3, which corresponds to the lattice diffusion under pore control, while that of UO2 is 2 and conforms to the grain boundary migration control. The SEM results show that there is solute segregation of MnO at the grain boundaries, followed by nucleation of lamellar structure in the form of piles and plates on the boundaries after high temperature treatment and traces of liquid phase in some region. Diffusion sintering experiments show that the mechanism of MnO-promoted UO2 grain boundary migration is based on solid phase diffusion. The XRD results of UO2 modified with different amounts of MnO demonstrate that the growth degree of UO2 grains can be related to the variation of lattice parameters resulted from the MnO modification. This is due to the enhanced mobility of UO2 grain boundaries because of the large distortion of surrounding lattice caused by Mn modification. These results can provide new ideas for the manufacture of UO2 ceramic fuels.