Release behavior of hydrogen isotopes thermally sorbed in Li2TiO3 single crystal

Understanding of fundamental processes governing tritium release in tritium breeder materials is important for blanket design in fusion reactors. In this paper, the release behavior of hydrogen isotopes in Li2TiO3 single crystal samples with different sizes was studied by thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). It was indicated that with the size of single crystal samples decreasing to several μm, the rate-controlling step in the release of hydrogen isotopes moves from bulk diffusion to surface processes. Regarding the amount of hydroxyl groups, the surface hydroxyl groups became predominant for the grains smaller than several tens of μms. The amount of surface hydroxyl groups was influenced by the specific surface area and surface conditions.