Identification of lithium hydride and its hydrolysis products with neutron imaging

In this study, lithium hydride (LiH) and its hydrolysis products were investigated non-destructively with neutron radiography and neutron computed tomography. Relative neutron transmission intensities (I/I0) were measured for LiOH, Li2O and LiH, and their linear attenuation coefficients calculated from this data. We show that 7Li is necessary for creating large differences in I/I0 for facile identification of these compounds. The thermal decomposition of LiOH to Li2O was also observed with neutron radiography. Computed tomography shows that the samples were fairly homogeneous, with very few macroscopic defects. The results shown here demonstrate the feasibility of observing LiH hydrolysis with neutron imaging techniques in real time.