Grain growth mechanism and thermal stability of Li2TiO3 pebbles fabricated by wet method.

Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic pebbles with uniform structure, high density and good mechanical property were successfully fabricated by wet process. The Li 2 TiO 3 pebbles sintered at 1000 °C for 4 h had satisfactory density (91% T.D.) and crush load (a.v. 27.1 N). The apparent activation energy of Li 2 TiO 3 grain growth was 201 ± 7 kJ/mol. Accelerated densification was observed in a reducing atmosphere, this might be attributed to the oxygen vacancies generated by the reduction of Ti4+ to Ti3+ in 0.1%H 2 +He atmosphere, which facilitate the diffusion of ions through the lattice. The grain growth was controlled by lattice diffusion under reducing atmosphere, and the apparent activation energy was 168 ± 6 kJ/mol. The mechanical results show that the crush load of Li 2 TiO 3 pebbles decreased with the increase of temperature, and the average crush load at 500 °C was 13.9 N. In addition, the thermal cycling and long-time annealing experiments suggested that Li 2 TiO 3 pebbles have good structural and performance stability. The Li 2 TiO 3 ceramics prepared by wet process were satisfactory tritium breeder materials with ideal application potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]