Microstructure and high-temperature oxidation behaviour of anti-oxidation coating on zirconium alloys: An overview

Due to the rapid development of the nuclear industry, zirconium alloys have received more and more attention as accident-tolerant fuel for nuclear reactors. However, the oxidation rate of zirconium alloy fuel coating will increase rapidly in the high-temperature environment above 1000 °C, which leads to a catastrophic nuclear leakage event. The corrosion resistance of zirconium alloy can be significantly improved through the surface coating technology. In this work, the microstructure and phase composition evolutions of chromium coating, composite coating, multilayer coating and MAX phase coating before and after oxidation are introduced. In addition, the oxidation behaviour and failure mechanism of the surface coating of zirconium alloy were analysed and summarised. Finally, the main problems and challenges of coating on the zirconium alloy surface are summarised and prospected.