The britholites have gained a great interest thanks to their potential applications as matrices for the confinement of the byproducts in the nuclear industry such as minor actinides and long-lived fission products. However, the preparation of britholites requires high temperatures, above 1200 8C. In this work, we strive to prepare these kinds of compounds by a mechanochemical synthesis at room temperature from the starting materials SrF 2 , SrCO 3 , Sr 2 P 2 O 7 , La 2 O 3 and SiO 2 using a planetary ball mill. The obtained results showed that the prepared products were carbonated apatites and the corresponding powders contained some unreacted silica and lanthana. To obtain pure britholites, a heat-treatment at 1100 8C was required. The mechanism involved in the different steps of the reaction is discussed in this paper. The obtained results suggest that the use of raw materials containing no carbonate is expected to directly lead to pure britholites by appropriate milling at room temperature.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.