Fabrication of attractive Li4SiO4 pebbles with modified powders synthesized via surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method

Li4SiO4 pebbles have been widely studied as attractive tritium breeding materials in the fusion reactor blanket of international thermonuclear experimental reactor (ITER). In this work, surfactant-assisted hydrothermal method was first employed to prepare ultrafine ceramic powders for fabricating attractive Li4SiO4 pebbles. SEM analysis revealed that the introduction of sodium dodecyl sulfate could eliminate the particle aggregation to prepare monodispersed precursor powders, and thus generated the green bodies of pebble with homogeneous microstructure, which was helpful to eventually obtain high-quality Li4SiO4 pebbles. Moreover, the effects of sintering temperature on the grain size, relative density, and crush load of Li4SiO4 pebbles were also investigated. Li4SiO4 pebbles sintered at 700 °C had a high crush load (average value 27.39 N), small grain size (average value 0.57 μm), satisfactory density (88.13%T.D.) and abundant pore structure, which were expected to show favorable tritium release behavior as a promising tritium breeding material for fusion reactor blanket.