Development of advanced tritium breeding material with added lithium for ITER-TBM

Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) is one of the most promising candidates among tritium breeding materials because of its good tritium release characteristics. However, the mass of Li2TiO3 decreased with time in a hydrogen atmosphere by the reduction of Ti and Li evaporation. In order to prevent the mass decrease at high temperatures, advanced tritium breeding material with added Li (Li2+xTiO3+y) should be developed. For this purpose, an advanced Li2TiO3 with added Li was synthesized from proportionally mixed LiOH·H2O and H2TiO3 with a Li/Ti ratio of 2.2. The results of X-ray diffraction measurement showed that this advanced tritium breeding material existed as the non-stoichiometric compound Li2+xTiO3+y. The desired molar ratio of Li/Ti was achieved by appropriate mixing of LiOH·H2O and H2TiO3. Therefore, synthesis by mixing LiOH·H2O and H2TiO3 is a promising mass production method for the advanced tritium breeding material with added Li for the test blanket module of ITER.