Tritium retention in nanostructured tungsten with large effective surface area

Tungsten specimens with fiberform nanostructure (Nano-W) were prepared by exposure to helium plasma in the divertor plasma simulator NAGDIS-II with different amounts of helium fluence. For comparison, tungsten specimens with smooth surface (Polished-W) were also prepared. Surface area of Nano-W was measured by using Brunauer, Emmet and Teller (B.E.T.) method. Tritium retention of Nano-W and Polished-W was investigated by an imaging plate (IP) and β-ray induced X-ray spectrometry (BIXS) technique exposure to mixture gas of deuterium and tritium. It was found that surface area of Nano-W was significantly larger than that of Polished-W and increased in proportion to the amount of helium irradiation. On the other hand, tritium retention showed a saturation trend when the helium fluence was higher than 5.0 × 10 ²⁵ m ².