The tungsten–rhenium couple was prepared by using glow plasma physical vapor deposition on the isotropic fine grained graphite substrates. Diffusion anneals of the tungsten–rhenium couple were conducted at 1100 to 1400C in order to investigate the interdiffusion behaviors. The results showed that the thickness of the interdiffusion zone increased with increasing annealing temperature. The relationship between the interdiffusion coefficient and the annealing temperature accorded with the Arrhenius manner. The value of interdiffusion activation energies was 189kJ/mole (1.96eV). The service time of tungsten–rhenium multilayer diffusion barrier was limited by the interdiffusion for rhenium and tungsten rather than the diffusion of carbon in rhenium.

Inter-Diffusion Analysis of Joint Interface of Tungsten–Rhenium Couple. Y.F.Hua, Z.X.Li, X.Zhang, J.H.Du, C.L.Huang, M.H.Du: Journal of Nuclear Materials, 2011, 416[3], 270-2