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Journal of Advanced Ceramics 2020, 9(5): 629-640 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-020-0419-0
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 21 September 2020

A comprehensive study on Li4Si1-xTixO4 ceramics for advanced tritium breeders

Show Author's Information Yichao GONGa( ),  Lin LIUa,  Jianqi QIb,  Mao YANGc,  Junjie LIa,  Hailiang WANGb,  Hao GUOb,  Guojun ZHANGa( ),  Tiecheng LUb( )
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China
College of Physical Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China
Keywords:
tritium ceramic breeders, Li4Si1-xTixO4, solid solutions, crush load, conductivity, thermal cycling
Cite this article:
GONG Y, LIU L, QI J, et al. A comprehensive study on Li4Si1-xTixO4 ceramics for advanced tritium breeders. Journal of Advanced Ceramics, 2020, 9(5): 629-640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40145-020-0419-0
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Hetero-element doped lithium orthosilicates have been considered as advanced tritium breeders due to the superior performances. In this work, Li4Si1-xTixO4 ceramics were prepared by proprietary hydrothermal process and multistage reactive sintering. The reaction mechanism of Li4Si1-xTixO4 was put forward. XRD and SEM analyses indicate that insertion of Ti leads to lattice expansion, which promotes the grain growth and changes the fracture mode. The compressive tests show that the crush load increases almost four times by increasing x from 0 to 0.2. However, the thermal conductivity and ionic conductivity are the best when x = 0.05 and x = 0.1, respectively. Thermal cycling stability of Li4Si1-xTixO4 pebbles was further appraised through investigating the changes of microstructure and crush load. After undergoing thermal cycling, the Li4Si1-xTixO4 still show higher crush load compared with Li4SiO4, despite Ti segregation in some samples. The x = 0.05 sample exhibits excellent thermal cycling stability. In summary, proper amount of Ti doping can improve the crush load, thermal and ionic conductivity, and thermal cycling stability of Li4SiO4.


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About this article

A comprehensive study on Li4Si1-xTixO4 ceramics for advanced tritium breeders

Show Author's information Yichao GONGa( ), Lin LIUa, Jianqi QIb, Mao YANGc, Junjie LIa, Hailiang WANGb, Hao GUOb, Guojun ZHANGa( ), Tiecheng LUb( )
School of Materials Science & Engineering, Xi’an University of Technology, Xi’an 710048, China
College of Physical Science and Technology, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610064, China
Institute of Nuclear Physics and Chemistry, China Academy of Engineering Physics, Mianyang 621900, China

Abstract

Hetero-element doped lithium orthosilicates have been considered as advanced tritium breeders due to the superior performances. In this work, Li4Si1-xTixO4 ceramics were prepared by proprietary hydrothermal process and multistage reactive sintering. The reaction mechanism of Li4Si1-xTixO4 was put forward. XRD and SEM analyses indicate that insertion of Ti leads to lattice expansion, which promotes the grain growth and changes the fracture mode. The compressive tests show that the crush load increases almost four times by increasing x from 0 to 0.2. However, the thermal conductivity and ionic conductivity are the best when x = 0.05 and x = 0.1, respectively. Thermal cycling stability of Li4Si1-xTixO4 pebbles was further appraised through investigating the changes of microstructure and crush load. After undergoing thermal cycling, the Li4Si1-xTixO4 still show higher crush load compared with Li4SiO4, despite Ti segregation in some samples. The x = 0.05 sample exhibits excellent thermal cycling stability. In summary, proper amount of Ti doping can improve the crush load, thermal and ionic conductivity, and thermal cycling stability of Li4SiO4.

Keywords: tritium ceramic breeders, Li4Si1-xTixO4, solid solutions, crush load, conductivity, thermal cycling

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Publication history

Received: 08 June 2020
Revised: 30 August 2020
Accepted: 31 August 2020
Published: 21 September 2020
Issue date: October 2020

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© The author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51802257), Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi Provincial Department of Education (18JK0570), and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M663788).

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