ABSTRACT Li 4 SiO 4 is considered as one of the most promising tritium breeding materials for fusion reactor blankets due to its excellent tritium release performance and good chemical stability. To solve the dilemma of high sintering temperature and limited mechanical performance of conventional Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic pebbles, the non‐hydrolytic sol‐gel (NHSG) route was employed to produce highly reactive ceramic powders. The NHSG‐derived powders showed a low phase‐formation temperature (∼550°C) and a fine particle size (∼about 300 nm), enabling the preparation of single‐phase Li 4 SiO 4 to take place at only 700°C. The Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic pebbles fabricated from these powders reached the relative density of 89.1%, the grain size of 3.3 µm, and the crushing load of 54.4 N after sintering at 1000°C for 2 h. Moreover, the tritium release results showed that the Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic pebbles exhibited HTO and HT signals, and the release temperature of HTO was only 711K, which was lower than that reported in the literature. These results demonstrate that the NHSG process offers an energy‐efficient pathway to fabricate the high‐purity, high‐reactivity Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic pebbles with superior sintering and tritium release performance. These findings present a promising alternative technical route toward solid tritium breeding material in the future.
Mao et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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