Processing and characterization of B₄C/Cu graded composite as plasma facing component for fusion reactors

A new approach for fabricating B₄C/Cu graded composite by rapid self-resistance sintering under ultra-high pressure was presented, by which a near dense B₄C/Cu graded composite with a compositional spectrum of 0-100% was successfully fabricated. Plasma relevant performances of sintered B₄C/Cu composite were preliminarily characterized, it is found that its chemical sputtering yield is 70% lower than that of SMF800 nuclear graphite under 2.7keV D⁺ irradiation, and almost no damages after 66 shots of in situ plasma discharge in HL-1 Tokamak facility, which indicates B₄C/Cu plasma facing component has a good physical and chemical sputtering resistance performance compared with nuclear graphite.