Preparation of Li4SiO4 pebbles with increased lithium content and crush load via molten salt assisted sintering

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.