
150
ENSI Erfahrungs- und Forschungsbericht 2011
and outlet (dissolved oxygen (DO), dissolved hyd-
rogen (DH),
k, T, p, flow rate, etc.) were recorded
continuously. Four coupon specimens (two pre-
oxidised and two in «as received» state) were ex-
posed to the high-temperature water in the au-
toclave, whereas one of them («as received» sta-
te) was electrically connected with a wire for ECP
measurement. The ECP of this specimen, of the
autoclave and the redox potential (Pt sheet) were
measured vs. a Cu/Cu
2
O ZrO
2
-membrane refe-
rence electrode. BWR conditions were simulated
with high-purity water at a temperature of 280 °C
and pressure of 90 bar. For HWC conditions, a
mixture of H
2
and O
2
was adjusted (stoichiomet-
ric excess of H
2
). The Pt compound (Na
2
Pt(OH)
6
)
was injected through ion-chromatography tubing
into the inlet water stream by an Eldex high-pres-
sure dosing pump after one week of pre-oxidation
(«t = 0»). Following several pre-tests, two compa-
rable tests were performed injecting the same to-
tal amount of Pt at two different Pt injection ra-
tes. Compared to plant OLNC applications, injec-
tion rates as well as the total amount of Pt injec-
ted were much lower in these tests. Three days af-
ter the Pt injection was finished, the experiments
were shut-down. The major test parameters can
be seen in Table 2.
3.3. Analytical techniques
The microstructural investigations were performed
using a Zeiss scanning electron microscope (SEM)
equipped with a field emission gun and X-ray
energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) from EDAX
for chemical analyses. A secondary electron detec-
tor was used to investigate the oxide layer topo-
graphy, whereas a back scattered electron detec-
tor was used to identify Z (chemical) contrast ac-
ross the oxide layers.
The Pt concentration on the surface of all speci-
mens was measured by Laser Ablation-Inductively
Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS).
Front and back side of the specimens were abla-
ted using a UV laser ablation system, coupled to
a sectorfield ICP-MS instrument (Element 2, Ther-
mo Fisher Scientific, Bremen, Germany). The la-
ser system is a quadrupled Nd:YAG laser delive-
ring a beam of 266 nm wavelength [15]. Analy-
ses of Pt on the specimens were carried out using
a point analysis mode. The Pt standards used for
the calculation of the Pt concentration on the sur-
face of the specimens are homogenous thin films
of Pt with a layer thickness of 0.14 and 1.4 nm on
SiO
2
substrate. The layer thickness corresponds to
0.3 and 3 μg/cm
2
.
3.4. Effect of Pt injection rate on
the electrochemical corrosion
potential
Figures 2a and 2b show the course of the speci-
men, autoclave and redox potentials during Tests
1 and 2, respectively. The small fluctuations of the
potential curves are due to short interruptions of
the Pt injection (e.g., change of the Pt injection so-
lution) and due to water sampling. Just before the
Pt injection the specimen potentials of both tests
were in a comparable range at about -200 and
Experiment designation Test 1 Test 2
Experiment duration [h]
477 305
Pressure [bar]
90 90
Temperature
autoclave
[°C]
280 280
Mass flow rate
inlet water
[kg/h]
10 10
Water chemistry Inlet Outlet Inlet Outlet
Molar ratio (DH/DO)
DH [ppb]
DO [ppb]
Conductivity [µS/cm]
4.6
75
258
0.055
15
53
56
0.070
4.9
75
244
0.055
–
45
0
0.060
Pt conc. of solution [ppb]
9.7 9.6
Pt injection period [h]
207 40
Pt injection rate [µg/h]
0.24 1.20
Nom. Pt conc. in water [ppt]
24 120
Total Pt injected [µg]
48.6 47.9
Table 2:
Summary of the major
test parameters during
the two experiments.
Comentarios a estos manuales