Rapid preparation of tritium breeder material Li2TiO3 pebbles by thermal plasma

• A novel, economical and effective approach was developed to prepare Li2TiO3 pebbles via rapid melting and cooling process in DC arc thermal plasma system.
• The prepared Li2TiO3 pebbles are mainly distributed in the 50–250 µm, and the average size of the particles is about 100 µm.
• The prepared Li2TiO3 pebbles present excellent spherical degree and spheroidization rate close to 100%, and are considered as candidate for tritium breeder materials in ITER test blanket module.

A route to obtain tritium breeder material Li2TiO3 pebbles in one step was investigated using a direct-current (DC) thermal plasma system. For this purpose, irregular and agglomerate powders were used as raw powders which were injected into DC thermal plasma torch with a plasma power level of ∼18 kW. The morphology, particles size distribution and phase change of the prepared Li2TiO3 pebbles were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results showed that prepared Li2TiO3 pebbles presented excellent spherical degree with average size about 100 µm and the spheroidization rate was close to 100%. The XRD patterns demonstrated that higher degree of crystallinity of Li2TiO3 pebbles could be obtained by thermal plasma processed. Formation mechanism of Li2TiO3 pebbles in DC thermal plasma system was discussed.