10, 100 and 1000 h molten lithium corrosion of selected ceramic materials

Lithium technology has shown itself to be instrumental in the progress towards achieving clean energy in the form of lithium batteries and aiding in the potential realization of commercial fusion. Lithium is one of the most reactive elements, so it is important to have a known family of materials that are compatible with it. For fusion devices, the engineering complexity of the systems necessary to facilitate a plasma increases greatly with the utilization of a molten metal Plasma Facing Component (PFC) like lithium compared to a solid PFC, with most of the current research into materials compatible with molten lithium focusing on metals. This work seeks to expand on the limited knowledge of lithium compatible insulators by exposing A l N , B N , S i C , L i A l O 2 , E r 2 O 3 , Y 2 O 3 , M g O , and B e O ceramics to molten lithium at 300 Celsius for 10, 100 and 1000 h. This work shows that nitride ceramics are resilient to molten lithium with minimal, if any, measurable changes in parameters. The S i C samples showed discoloration, saw potential polishing by liquid lithium and had a significant decrease in the sample resistance, possible due to lithium penetration into the sample surface. L i A l O 2 showed marked discoloration and roughness increase. E r 2 O 3 showed large discoloration and surface damage with potential evidence of lithium penetration inside the sample, which caused its resistance decrease for 1000-h exposure. Y 2 O 3 and M g O samples showed decent resilience to the molten lithium up to 100 h, but both ceramics did not survive 1000-h exposure. Lastly, B e O disintegrated during the 10-h lithium exposure.