Nuclear Materials and Energy
·
2023
·
IF 2.6
Xin Chen,Yichao Gong,Kun Kang,Yuefei Wang,Jiarui Li,Zhaokun Li,Tao Wu,Guojun Zhang
Li 2 TiO 3 /Li 4 SiO 4 ceramics have been regarded as promising tritium breeders due to their numerous merits. In this work, chitosan was employed as an effective binder to provide adhesion of Li 2 TiO 3 particles to Li 4 SiO 4 particles, resulting in Li 2 TiO 3 /Li 4 SiO 4 ceramics with improved performance. Chitosan could be removed during the sintering process and had little influence on the phase composition. The resulting Li 2 TiO 3 /Li 4 SiO 4 ceramics had higher density (92.5%T.D.), greater crushing loads (115.2 ± 20.8 N) and superior thermal properties (3.61 W/m∙K) when compared to the samples prepared without chitosan. SEM analyses displayed a dual-scale structure and the inter- and trans -granular fracture mode. Thermal cycling tests revealed that the phase composition was stable but the crushing load fell slightly. The crushing load remained at 92.4 ± 17.1 N after 12 cycles. Overall, chitosan plays an important role in the amelioration of interface combination between Li 4 SiO 4 and Li 2 TiO 3 , and thus significantly improve density, crushing load and thermal conductivity of Li 2 TiO 3 /Li 4 SiO 4 .
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核能工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
·
2020
·
IF 3.83
Yichao Gong,Junjie Li,Lin Liu,Lei Xu,Jie Cui,Guojun Zhang,Tiecheng Lu
Improving the lithium density and performance of lithium-based ceramics is the main direction for the development of advanced tritium breeder. In this work, the previously used polymers or organics were replaced by eutectic LiNO 3 –LiCl in wet process for preparing spherical green body, and then Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles were fabricated through molten salt assisted sintering. The eutectic salt used herein was eco-friendly and had little effect on the Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles. Instead, the incorporation of eutectic salt improved the lithium density and sinterability of Li 4 SiO 4 . The prepared Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles exhibited well-grained microstructure, and the grain size increased with the increasing contents of eutectic salt. Compressive tests showed that the crush load increased more than five times when 20 wt% eutectic salt was added. The proposed method may have great prospects in the preparation of tritium breeding materials.
研究领域:
核科学与技术
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
·
2021
·
IF 4.527
Juemin Yan,Nanlin He,Xiaojun Chen,Chengjian Xiao,Lin Jie Zhao,Tao Gao
Lithium orthosilicate (Li 4 SiO 4 ) is an important tritium breeder for the fusion blanket concept. It was selected as the first candidate in China's test blanket model. In this study, in order to improve the thermal conductivity and mechanical properties of Li 4 SiO 4 , titanium was chosen to replace the silicon in it. This is because Ti has large atomic radius and the same charge as that of silicon. The fabrication and characterization of Li 4 Si 1-x Ti x O 4 solid solution was carried out. The Li 4 (Si,Ti)O 4 powders were synthesised via a solid-state reaction, and the pebbles were fabricated using the freeze-drying method. The structure, morphology, thermal conductivity, and mechanical properties of the Li 4 (Si,Ti)O 4 samples were analysed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectroscopy, a laser thermal conductivity meter, and a universal testing machine. Moreover, the thermal conductivity of Li 4 SiO 4 improved significantly after Ti doping, and the mechanical properties of the Li 4 (Si,Ti)O 4 pebbles sintered at 1000 °C were significantly better than those of Li 4 SiO 4 .
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核能工程
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
·
2019
·
IF 3.45
Yichao Gong,Junjie Li,Shenghui Yang,Mao Yang,Hao Dang,Yingying Ren,Guojun Zhang,Tiecheng Lu
Investigations on the doping modification of tritium breeding materials have been becoming one of the interesting research areas in the past few years. Recently, preparation method, mechanical and physical properties and tritium release behavior of Li 4+x Si 1-x Al x O 4 solid solution have been studied because of its potential advantages in the field of tritium breeding materials. In this paper, a facile approach was proposed to prepare Li 4+x Si 1-x Al x O 4 pebbles with a relatively small grain. TG/DSC and XRD were conducted to investigate the formation process of Li 4+x Si 1-x Al x O 4 . The results showed the crushing strength and thermal conductivity were obviously improved by introduction of hetero-element Al into Li 4 SiO 4 , and the optimal x value for Li 4+x Si 1-x Al x O 4 was 0.2 from the point of high crushing strength and thermal conductivity. This study will be expected to provide references for fabricating other solid solution tritium breeders.
研究领域:
核能科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
·
2025
·
IF 5.6
Xin Luo,Weilong Ren,Huanhuan Xing,Muhammad Irfan Hussain,Qumail Arshad,Yuzeng Li,Zhiyuan Liu,Changyong Liu,Zhangwei Chen
Vat photopolymerization 3D printing technique enables the precise fabrication of ceramic components with highly complex shapes and improved performance. It has been used for the preparation of Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic units, which are a promising candidate for stable tritium breeding in fusion reactions. In order to further enhance the production properties, herein metal oxide additions are proposed to combine with the previously reported generative shaping and material-forming (GSM) strategy. A remarkable theoretical density of 92.8 % and crushing load of 38.54 N reveal the effectiveness of this approach in producing robust ceramic units potentially suitable for tritium production. The study is proved to be cost-effective, highly efficient in production and most importantly to be able to produce high-performance Li₄SiO₄-based tritium breeding ceramics. Our findings provide a new insight into lithium-based tritium breeders preparation and applications, supporting their potential in fusion energy.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核能工程
·
先进制造
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
·
2018
·
IF 3.057
Yichao Gong,Zhong Chen,Mao Yang,Hailiang Wang,Chen Dang,Wanxia Huang,Tiecheng Lu
Li 4 SiO 4 has been widely studied as attractive tritium breeding materials due to its innate merits. Considering the potential advantages of nanostructure in tritium breeding materials, a distinctive process was developed to obtain nanostructured Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles. In brief, ultrafine precursor powders were synthesized by solvothermal method without using surfactants , and then indirect wet method was adopted to generate the green spheres with homogeneous microstructure. After that, the suitable sintering conditions were defined by studying the effects of sintering parameters on the grain size evolution, and nanostructured Ti-doped Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles were first obtained by two-step sintering method. This study will be expected to provide references for fabricating other Li-based tritium breeding materials.
研究领域:
核能科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF NUCLEAR MATERIALS
·
2025
·
IF 3.2
Guangfan Tan,Qilai Zhou,Yasuhisa Oya,Yingchun Zhang,Chang-An Wang,Yanhao Dong
The Li 2 TiO 3 and Li 2 ZrO 3 ceramic pebbles are regarded as promising tritium breeder on account of their superb chemical stability, high tritium diffusion rates, and neutron multiplication potential of Zr, respectively. To integrate the advantages of these two materials, it is necessary to develop a composite such as Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 , which is ideal for advanced fusion reactor designs. Up to now, fabricated biphasic ceramic pebbles generally suffer from low production yield, inadequate crushing load, and high cost, which restricts their application in practice. In this paper, biphasic Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 tritium breeding pebbles with superior crushing strength are successfully fabricated employing the centrifugal granulation method by selecting the appropriate binder and controlling the growth rate. Moreover, by this technique, ceramic pebbles with wide diameter distribution can be obtained, which will help to improve the packing factor of pebble beds in the solid blanket. In addition, the composition, microstructure, and internal structure of the Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 ceramic pebbles are thoroughly analyzed, respectively. The Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 ceramic pebbles, after being sintered at 1100 °C, attained a high sphericity of 0.97, a superior crushing load of 67.6 N, and an optimum porosity of 9.75 % in the shell. Moreover, the Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 ceramic pebbles also exhibit excellent deuterium release properties with the main form of HDO. The above results show that the centrifugal granulation method is not only applicable to the mass production of Li 2 TiO 3 -Li 2 ZrO 3 ceramic pebbles but also to other tritium breeders, which offers promising prospects for the development of advanced tritium breeding materials in the future.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核工程
·
陶瓷学
·
聚变技术
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
FUSION ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
·
2021
·
IF 1.453
Maoqiao Xiang,Jie Zheng,Shaofu Li,Chaoquan Hu,Jingyi Cui,Yingchun Zhang,Qiang Qi,Fen Yue
Lithium-based ceramic tritium breeders would attack the blanket structural materials and produce brittle corrosion layers, causing potential safety hazard. Herein, coated breeders were proposed as advanced tritium breeders to address the issue. Carbon (C), titanium nitride (TiN) and titanium carbide (TiC) were investigated as inert protective shells because they show excellent stability and chemical compatibility with Li 2 TiO 3 and Li 4 SiO 4 . Moreover, for the first time, the C and TiN coated Li 2 TiO 3 and Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles were successfully fabricated by fluidized bed chemical vapor deposition (FBCVD) process, which would significantly decrease the brittle corrosion layers and increase the safety. The deposition behavior and interface reactions were systemically investigated.
研究领域:
核能科学
·
材料科学
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
Additive Manufacturing
·
2020
·
IF 7.002
Yu Liu,Zhangwei Chen,Junjie Li,Baoping Gong,Long Wang,Changshi Lao,Pei Wang,Changyong Liu,Yongjin Feng,Xiaoyu Wang
A flexible and integrated design and manufacturing process based on photopolymerization DLP 3D printing technology is proposed to fabricate tritium breeder units that can be used in fusion reactors. Defect-free cellular structures of lithium-enriched Li 4 SiO 4 is manufactured for the first time that can be used to replace the traditional pebble beds configuration to overcome problems resulted from stress concentration and difficulty in packing fraction improvement. As-received large Li 4 SiO 4 powder which is highly sensitive to air and ambient environment is protected and processed in inert glove box for the use in the preparation and optimization of stable photopolymerizable resin-based ceramic slurry suitable for DLP 3D printing . Appropriate debinding and sintering treatments applied result in homogeneous shrinkage and preserved features of the cellular structures, showing benefits for dimension control. The intact structures possess high phase purity and suitable and tailorable effective ‘packing fraction’ for breeding application. Mechanical tests and the obtained results compared with existing works further confirm that the cellular parts prepared in this work have advantageous performance. The unique advantage of flexible control in design and manufacturing of 3D printing may pave a promising way for greater possibilities to engineer novel tailored high-performance tritium breeder structures used in nuclear fusion technology.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核能工程
·
先进制造
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYDROGEN ENERGY
·
2023
·
IF 7.2
Liang Cai,Sirong Tao,Zhen Shen,Li Wan,Ziao Liu,Xilin He,Yingchun Zhang
Li 4 SiO 4 ceramic pebble is deemed as the most attractive tritium breeder for fusion reactor blanket. In this work, we fabricated a novel Li 4 SiO 4 pebble with micrometer-scale pore structure by digital light processing to verify the feasibility of complex pore structure manufacturing for future breeders. The effects of processing parameters on printing accuracy, microstructure and mechanical properties of Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles were investigated. For synthesizing the pure Li 4 SiO 4 phase, the optimal stoichiometric ratio of Li 2 SiO 3 to Li 2 CO 3 was 1:1.09 in the premixed powder. The photosensitivity of dual-phase ceramic suspension was investigated according to an attenuation model, and the overgrowth was reduced to ∼50 μm by using the dimension formula. After optimizing the post-processing, the radial pore structure Li 4 SiO 4 pebbles with excellent crush load (50.3 N, standard deviation = 4.4 N) and suitable open porosity (18.3 %) can be yielded. This work provides a fresh solution to control the pore structure of tritium breeding pebbles in an unprecedented micrometer scale.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
核工程
·
增材制造
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN CERAMIC SOCIETY
·
2022
·
IF 6.364
Liang Cai,Guangfan Tan,Xin Hu,Zhen Shen,Li Wan,Yingchun Zhang
Li 2 TiO 3 is regarded as a vital tritium breeder candidate due to its favorable properties in Helium-Cooled Pebble Bed. However, the point contact stress breakage for traditional pebble structure can cause the blocking of tritium recovery system, and seriously reduce the safety and tritium self-sufficiency ability of fusion reactor. For addressing above problems, in this paper, complex-shaped Li 2 TiO 3 cubic units were manufactured firstly via lithography-based 3D printing . According to the principle of tritium transport, the cubic unit structures with ordered channels were built and evaluated by finite element analysis . The photocuring parameters were optimized to improve printing accuracy by establishing an overgrowth model. After optimizing the sintering schedule, the Li 2 TiO 3 cubic units with excellent relative density (92.3%TD) and packing factor (80.99%) were yielded, and it also had an outstanding compressive strength (84.4 MPa). The results of thermal cycling test shown that the Li 2 TiO 3 cubic units possessed a prominent thermal cyclic durability.
研究领域:
核工程
·
材料科学
·
增材制造
✓ 已验证
DOI
高影响因子
Additive Manufacturing
·
2022
·
IF 11.632
Fang Su,Yu Liu,Cheng Zhang,Zhongqiang Luo,Jiwei Cao,Zhiyuan Liu,Pei Wang,Changyong Liu,Zhangwei Chen
This study presents a novel combined generative shaping and material-forming (GSM) approach for preparing tritium breeder units for fusion reactors using 3D printing technology . For the first time, defect-free lithium-rich Li 4 SiO 4 porous structures were successfully prepared by combining photopolymerization and reaction sintering processes based on the use of low-cost Li 2 CO 3 and SiO 2 ceramic powders . Investigation was conducted on the preparation of the ceramic powder-based mixture slurry as well as the photopolymerization 3D printing and reaction sintering processes . Li 4 SiO 4 -based porous lattice ceramics with high purity, no obvious defects, and adjustable packing fraction were fabricated. The mechanical properties of the samples prepared with different packing fractions were then evaluated. The prepared samples showed better mechanical properties than the pebble bed structures with similar packing fractions. At a packing fraction of 92.10%, the crushing strength and elastic modulus reached 186.49 ± 0.04 MPa and 16.47 ± 0.03 GPa, respectively. These results show that the combination of photopolymerization 3D printing and reaction sintering processes based on the use of low-cost ceramic powders has significant advantages in terms of flexibility and efficiency in structure design and fabrication and cost-effectiveness in material forming with enhanced performance, providing a promising route to produce high-performance tritium breeder structures for fusion technologies. In particular, the present combined method also paves a promising generalized way to enable effective generative structure-shaping and material-forming in the advanced ceramic manufacturing industry, not to mention that the preparation of high-performance Li 4 SiO 4 tritium breeder units for fusion technologies.
研究领域:
材料科学
·
增材制造
·
陶瓷工程
·
核聚变技术
·
先进制造
✓ 已验证
产品关联
DOI
高影响因子
危险品化学品经营许可证（带存储）