Influence of Lithium Vacancy Defects on Tritium Diffusion in β-Li2TiO3.

Abstract

Lithium metatitanate, Li2TiO3, is a leading candidate for application as a tritium breeding material in a future fusion reactor. Following transmutation of lithium, the tritium must escape the crystal in order to be extracted for use in the fusion plasma. The rate-limiting step to release tritium from the Li2TiO3 pebbles is diffusion through the crystal grains. In this work, the activation barriers for tritium diffusion have been calculated using density functional theory. The results show that tritium can diffuse as an interstitial with a barrier of 0.52 eV. However, when a tritium ion becomes bound to a lithium vacancy defect, the energy required to either detrap the tritium from the vacancy or for the cluster to diffuse increases to >1 eV. Overall, these results suggest that the introduction of lithium vacancies due to Li burn-up may lead to an increase in tritium retention in the pebbles.

• Authors: Kamal N Goswami, Samuel T Murphy
• Journal: The journal of physical chemistry. C, Nanomaterials and interfaces (J Phys Chem C Nanomater Interfaces) Vol. 124 Issue 23 Pg. 12286-12294 (Jun 11 2020) ISSN: 1932-7447 [Print] United States
• PMID: 33133328 (Publication Type: Journal Article)