Density of Li<sub>2</sub>TiO<sub>3</sub> Solid Tritium Breeding Ceramic Pebbles

Abstract

As an important solid tritium breeding ceramic material, Li2TiO3 pebbles with the diameter of 1mm are used in the breeding pebble bed for ITER test blanket module (TBM). Therefore, it is very important to evaluate the densities of Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles accurately. In this paper, Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles with the diameter of about 1mm were prepared by wet method using Li2CO3 and TiO2 as the main raw materials. The shape and microstructure are characterized by SEM technique. Densities of the ceramic pebbles were analyzed by both Archimedes principle and Mercury porosimetry methods. The results show that the density measured by Archimedes principle is higher than reality density, while the density measured by mercury porosimetry is accurate.