Preparation of Li4SiO4 pebbles with increased lithium content and crush load via molten salt assisted sintering

Abstract Improving the lithium density and performance of lithium-based ceramics is the main direction for the development of advanced tritium breeder. In this work, the previously used polymers or organics were replaced by eutectic LiNO3–LiCl in wet process for preparing spherical green body, and then Li4SiO4 pebbles were fabricated through molten salt assisted sintering. The eutectic salt used herein was eco-friendly and had little effect on the Li4SiO4 pebbles. Instead, the incorporation of eutectic salt improved the lithium density and sinterability of Li4SiO4. The prepared Li4SiO4 pebbles exhibited well-grained microstructure, and the grain size increased with the increasing contents of eutectic salt. Compressive tests showed that the crush load increased more than five times when 20 wt% eutectic salt was added. The proposed method may have great prospects in the preparation of tritium breeding materials.