Lithium metazirconate for nuclear application: physical and mechanical properties

✍ Scribed by L. Montanaro; A. Negro; J. P. Lecompte

• Book ID: 104739390
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 656 KB
• Volume: 30
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-2461
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00361513

✦ Synopsis

Lithium metazirconate is a candidate in fusion reactor designs as a tritium-breeding material. An amorphous powder was synthesized by gelling zirconium propylate and lithium acetate: after heat treatment at 900 ~ pure Li2ZrOa-I was obtained. Preliminary tests made on sintered pellets, obtained from this powder, demonstrated an appropriate tritium release at low temperature, when the sample porosity was about 20% and the mean pore radius 3 gm. The subject of this paper was to realize a good compromise between mechanical properties and the spread porosity, necessary for tritium diffusion. Dilatometric investigations were performed on compacts of powders treated at 800, 900 and 1000~ to identify the best temperature and time of sintering. The calcined powders were also uniaxially pressed at 200, 300 and 500 MPa: the green bodies were sintered at 1200, 1250 and 1300~ for 2 or 4 h, in order to produce ceramics having different porosity. On the sintered bodies, the pore size distribution, the mean pore radius and mechanical properties were evaluated.