Improvement of hydrogen isotope exchange reactions on Li4SiO4 ceramic pebble by catalytic metals

Li4SiO4 ceramic pebble is considered as a candidate tritium breeding material of Chinese Helium Cooled Solid Breeder Test Blanket Module (CH HCSB TBM) for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). In this paper, Li4SiO4 ceramic pebbles deposited with catalytic metals, including Pt, Pd, Ru and Ir, were prepared by wet impregnation method. The metal particles on Li4SiO4 pebble exhibit a good promotion of hydrogen isotope exchange reactions in H2–D2O gas system, with conversion equilibrium temperature reduction of 200–300 °C. The out-of-pile tritium release experiments were performed using 1.0 wt% Pt/Li4SiO4 and Li4SiO4 pebbles irradiated in a thermal neutron reactor. The thermal desorption spectroscopy shows that Pt was effective to increase the tritium release rate at lower temperatures, and the ratio of tritium molecule (HT) to tritiated water (HTO) of 1.0 wt% Pt/Li4SiO4 was much more than that of Li4SiO4, which released mainly as HTO. Thus, catalytic metals deposited on Li4SiO4 pebble may help to accelerate the recovery of bred tritium particularly in low temperature region, and increase the tritium molecule form released from the tritium breeding materials.