Reaction kinetics of Li4SiO4 and Li4Ti5O12 in biphasic breeder ceramics after lithium burn-up

Advanced ceramic breeder (ACB) pebbles consisting of the two phases Li4SiO4 and Li2TiO3 serve as the EU reference tritium breeding material. In the present study, the phase stability with regard to a lithium-burn-up is investigated. The loss of lithium due to its transmutation will lead to a compositional change of the breeder material. Li4SiO4 and Li2TiO3 will partly be transformed to the lithium-poorer phases Li2SiO3 and Li4Ti5O12, respectively. However, from the phase diagram it is anticipated that only Li2SiO3 will occur as a third phase after a lithium burn-up as the generated Li4Ti5O12 is expected to further react with Li4SiO4 to form again Li2TiO3 and more Li2SiO3. Therefore, the reaction between Li4SiO4 and Li4Ti5O12 and its temperature dependence were investigated in detail and its reaction kinetics were determined. It was found that this diffusion-controlled reaction with an activation energy of 75 kJ/mol (0.78 eV) will slow down at low irradiation temperatures and may not take place at very low temperatures.