How the crystallography and nanoscale chemistry of the metal/oxide interface develops during the aqueous oxidation of zirconium cladding alloys

Aqueous corrosion and hydrogenation have become major limiting factors to the use of zirconium alloys as fuel cladding and assembly components in water-cooled nuclear reactors. The metal–oxide interface has been a particular focus of previous research, but there is still no clear understanding of what is present at the interface at different stages of the complex oxidation process. We report here a systematic investigation using state-of-the-art...