Effects of sintering conditions on the microstructure of Li2TiO3 tritium breeding materials

Lithium meta-titanate (Li2TiO3) have been proposed as candidate breeder materials for fusion breeding blankets. For the efficient tritium release, the breeder materials are recommended to have homogeneous microstructure with small grain sizes which can be strongly affected by the sintering conditions such as temperature, heating rate, atmosphere and so on. The Li2TiO3 pebbles were fabricated by the slurry droplet wetting method with nano-powder. In this study, the effects of sintering conditions on the microstructure of sintered pebbles were investigated. Phase analysis and morphological observation were carried out by X-ray diffraction and electron microscopy, respectively. The grain growth is strongly affected by the increasing temperature and heating rate. The sintering temperature of 900 degrees C and 10 degrees C/min were optimal condition for small grain size.