Vaporization of liquid Pb-Li eutectic alloy from 1000K to 1200K - A high temperature mass spectrometric study

Abstract

Liquid lead-lithium eutectic will be used as a coolant in fusion reactor blanket loop. Vapor pressure of the eutectic is an important parameter to accurately predict its in-loop behavior. Past measurements of vapor pressure of the eutectic relied on indirect methods. In this paper, we report for the first time the in-situ vaporization behavior of the liquid alloy between 1042 and 1176 K by Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry (KEMS). It was seen that the vaporization occurred by independent evaporation of lead and lithium. No complex intermetallic vapor was seen in the mass spectra. The partial pressures and enthalpy of vaporization of Pb and Li were evaluated directly from the measured ion intensities formed from the equilibrium vapor over the alloy. The activity of Li over a temperature range of 1042–1176 K was found to be 4.8 × 10−5 to that of pure Li, indicating its very low activity in the alloy.