Hydrogen permeation through steel coated with erbium oxide by sol–gel method

Er2O3 coating is formed on austenitic stainless steel 316ss by sol–gel method. The results showed good crystallization of coating by baking in high purity flowing-argon at 973 K, and indicated that a little oxygen in baking atmosphere is necessary to crystallization of coating. The best baking temperature could be thought as 973 K, to get good crystallization of coating and avoid strong oxidation of steel substrate. The deuterium permeation test was performed for coated and bare 316ss, to evaluate the property of Er2O3 sol–gel coating as a potential tritium permeation barrier. In this study, the deuterium permeability of coated 316ss is about 1–2 orders of magnitude lower than that of bare 316ss, and is about 2–3 orders of magnitude than the referred data of bare Eurofer97 and F82H martensitic steel.