A novel mass production method for Li2TiO3 tritium breeder ceramic pebbles using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) assisted granulation method

Preparation of tritium breeding Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles via newly developed piezoelectric micro‐droplet jetting

“…The rolling method is an optimized spheroidization method, where organic‐binders‐encapsulated ceramic powder particles and organic solutions are separately sprayed from two nozzles successively onto a low speed rotating table to prepare green pebbles under the action of centrifugal forces. Wang et al 19 . prepared Li 2 TiO 3 breeder materials using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone by the rolling method.…”

“…Unfortunately, many technical challenges urgently need to be resolved before engineering applications, such as the difficulty of controlling the pebble shape during spheroidization and the wide size distribution of the fabricated pebbles. 18,19 The rolling method is an optimized spheroidization method, where organic-binders-encapsulated ceramic powder particles and organic solutions are separately sprayed from two nozzles successively onto a low speed rotating table to prepare green pebbles under the action of centrifugal forces. Wang et al 19 prepared Li 2 TiO 3 breeder materials using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone by the rolling method.…”

“…18,19 The rolling method is an optimized spheroidization method, where organic-binders-encapsulated ceramic powder particles and organic solutions are separately sprayed from two nozzles successively onto a low speed rotating table to prepare green pebbles under the action of centrifugal forces. Wang et al 19 prepared Li 2 TiO 3 breeder materials using polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and polyvinyl pyrrolidone by the rolling method. The Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic breeder pebbles sintered at 900 • C have a sphericity of 1.08 and a crushing load of 21 N. The weak strength is mainly due to the introduction of a large amount of organic matter and the low packing density of powder particles in the granulation process.…”

“…12,13 Extensive efforts have been devoted to developing universal and efficient methods for the preparation of size-controllable tritium breeder pebbles. The mainstream methods for breeder ceramic pebble preparation can be classified into extrusion-spheronizationsintering, [14][15][16][17] rolling method, [18][19][20] melt spraying, [21][22][23][24] and wet process. [25][26][27] In the extrusion-spheronizationsintering process, the conventional method is to extrude rod-like semi-solid billets consisting of organic binder and ceramic powder from the extrusion equipment and then granulate it with a spheronizer under the action of friction.…”

Mass fabrication of Li2TiO3–Li4SiO4 ceramic pebbles with high strength by facile centrifugal granulation method

“…But the sphericity of ceramic pebbles was only 1.04 owing to the non-idealized condition of the granulation. Recently, Wang et al 32 prepared Li 2 TiO 3 breeder pebbles via granulation method by using PVA and PVP as the mixed binder. But the Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic breeder pebbles presented poor sphericity and the crushing load is merely 21 N. Meanwhile, Chen et al 9 successfully fabricated the Li 4 TiO 4 -Li 2 TiO 3 breeder materials through an improved granulation method.…”