J. Plasma Fusion Res. SERIES, Vol. 11 (2015)

Short-term nitrogen trapping in liquid lithium by pure titanium
Takuma HIGASHIa,*, Akihiro SUZUKIa , Takayuki TERAIa and Juro YAGIbaThe University of Tokyo, Japan , b National Institute for Fusion Science, Japan(Received: 17 September 2014 / Accepted: 19 January 2015)

Nitrogen in the liquid lithium target in IFMIF may enhance corrosion and erosion of the structural materials.
Because nitrogen has a high solubility in lithium, hot trapping by getter materials is required. The function of puretitanium as a nitrogen absorber has been suggested and demonstrated by Hanford Engineering Development
Laboratory and ENEA. However, there is a problem that nitrogen trapping is inhibited by TiN (titanium nitride)
generated on the titanium surface. In this study, short-term nitrogen trapping effect was investigated to clarify themechanism of initial TiN formation in lithium. The short-term (~27 hours) pot experiments with pure titanium plate
were performed. As a result, the nitrogen concentration in lithium was reduced by pure titanium. However, the peak
pattern of TiN was not observed with XRD in the titanium plate after an immersion experiment. By TEM
observation of the titanium plate after the pot test with a high nitrogen concentration, it was shown that mostnitrogen did not form TiN but diffused into the bulk of titanium plate. Therefore, efficient recovery may be possible
in an early stage of the use of titanium as a hot trap, without being inhibited by formation of TiN.
Keywords: IFMIF, liquid lithium, nitrogen, pure titanium, hot trapsystem, and a cooling system. The circulation of liquidlithium is induced by electromagnetic pumps. The lithium
purification system consists of one cold trap and two hot
traps, and reduces the nonmetallic impurities, which canlead to corrosion and erosion of structural materials[7].
Hydrogen isotopes, including the tritium generated by
the D-Li reaction, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are themain nonmetallic impurities in liquid lithium. Keeping thelevel below 10 wt.ppm is required for carbon, nitrogen, andoxygen. For tritium, the reduction below 1 wt.ppm isrequired [8]. Since nitrogen impurities can preventhydrogen isotope recovery, reducing the nitrogen level isstrongly required for nitrogen. Since the solubility ofnitrogen to lithium is high compared with oxygen orcarbon, the hot trap by a chemical absorption reaction isrequired in addition to a cold trap. The materials which
serve to recover substantially in the hot trap are calledgetter materials. Ti, Cr, V, V-Ti alloy and Fe-Ti alloy havebeen investigated in the past as getter materials for nitrogen.
Fe-Ti alloy is the major interest in recent years [9-11].
Recently, a two-step recovery system using pure titanium
as the material for the initial purification systems has been
proposed [12]. Good performance of pure titanium has
been suggested by Hanford Engineering Development
Laboratory [13] and ENEA [14]. However, nitrogenrecovery can be inhibited by TiN generated on the surfaceof titanium at an early stage. In this study, we are focusing
on short-term nitrogen trapping effect to clarify themechanism
ofaninitialTiNformation.
The short-term pot experiments with pure titanium plates
were performed.

1. Introduction

Nuclear fusion reactors are under developement as thenew power generation system which can produces
large-scale energy with abundant resources.
To commercialize nuclear fusion energy by the D-T
nuclear fusion reaction, blanket structural materials which
are resistant to 14 MeV neutron load are required [1].
Development of the materials which can be used under thiscondition is one of the main subjects of nuclear fusion
reactor engineering.
IFMIF (International Fusion Materials Irradiation
Facility) is a facility which evaluates the property changeof materials by 14 MeV neutron irradiation. It is underdevelopement for the purpose of simulating nuclear fusion
reactor environments [2,3]. IFMIF is the accelerator based
neutronirradiation
facilitywithaD-Li(Deuterium-Lithium) stripping reaction. The main systemsof IFMIF consist of an accelerator system, a lithium target
system, and a test cell system. An accelerator system
consists of 2 sets of deuteron accelerators of 40 MeV and125 mA [4-6].
Deuterons are injected to a flowing liquid lithium filmof the target, generating neutrons for irradiation of test cellsystem. In the test cell system, control of irradiation
conditions are performed. The neutron of 20 dpa/year is
supplied by the lithium target system, and in order toremove the heat by deuteron beams with 10MW, it isnecessary to flow the liquid lithium with a maximum flow
velocity of 20 m/s. A target system consists of a target
assembly, a lithium main loop, a lithium purification
author’s e-mail: higashi.takuma@nuclear.jp

41©2015 by The Japan Society of Plasma
Science and Nuclear Fusion Research

T. Higashi et al., Short-Term Nitrogen Trapping in Liquid Lithium by Pure Titanium

2. Experiment
2.1 Getter materials immersion experiment in a pot
In this study, the immersion experiment wasperformed with liquid lithium in the pot made of a stainlesssteel, using 0.2 mm thick pure titanium plates as the getter
material. A portion of lithium and a titanium plate weretaken out with a scheduled time interval, and a chemical
analysis was performed. For the immersion, temperature
was set at 500 oC and 600 oC and the duration was set for 1hour ~ 27 hours. Handling of lithium and the immersion
experiment were carried out in a glove box with highpurity argon atmosphere. A schematic figure of theapparatus is shown in Figure 1.

The hydrogen generated produces ammonia byreacting with nitrogen in lithium by Equation (2).
N㸩3H Ѝ NH3

In a trap of recovered water connected to the gas line
(about 0.01mol/l hydrochloric acid), ammonia molecules
reacted to form ammonium ions by Equation (3).
NH3㸩H+ Ѝ NH4+(3)Ammonia concentration in the recovered water wasmeasured, and the concentration of nitrogen in lithium wascalculated.

Fig.1 The experimental conceptual figure

Fig.2 The ammonia conversion method.
We assumed that all nitrogen in lithium converted toammonia. Thus, it is possible to evaluate the change of theconcentration of nitrogen in liquid lithium during theimmersion experiment.

The Sieverts' method was used for the adjustment of
the initial nitrogen concentration in lithium. This is amethod for measuring the amount of gas absorption bycontacting the molten metal with known amount of gas.
In a pot made of a stainless steel, 50 gram molten
lithium was installed, and five titanium plates (20mm x20mm x 0.2mm) were immersed. The immersion
experiment was started at 500 oC. When 27 hours had
passed after starting the immersion, sampling of lithium
and a titanium plate was performed.

2.3 Titanium plate analysis after immersion
In this study, we use XRD (X-ray diffraction) foranalyzing the experimental products. In this study, weanalyzed the samples before and after ion sputtering for
digging the sample to check the depth distribution ofnitrides. In addition, by using Cu-Kα x-ray, we performed
XRD analysis with the parallel beam method in θ-2θmeasurement. We also obtained the depth profile byPHI5000 VersaProbe XPS (X-ray PhotoelectronSpectroscopy) with Ar sputtered etching of the surface ofthe titanium plate. Depth profiles of N-1s and Ti-2p
spectra were measured and the atomic ratio of elements
was then calculated by comparing the areas of thesepeaks. Furthermore, we performed the cross-sectional
observation of the titanium plates after immersion using
TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope) to obtain thedistribution of nitrides in the titanium plate.

2.2 Nitrogen concentration measurement in lithium
Nitrogen concentration in lithium was measured bythe ammonia conversion method, which is schematicallyexplained in Fig. 2. Lithium sample was sealed in areaction vessel in a glove box with argon atmosphere. The
reaction vessel in a mantle heater was connected to a
Liebig condenser and a gas inlet system. A flow of highpurity argon gas removed the air remaining in the gas line,and about 80ml of pure water was added to the pot to reactwith lithium. Equation (1) expresses the reaction.
Li + H2O Ѝ LiOH + H

(2)

(1)

42

T. Higashi et al., Short-Term Nitrogen Trapping in Liquid Lithium by Pure Titanium

3. Results & Discussions
3.1 Time dependence
in lithiumofnitrogen

Results normalized to confirm the presence of theTiN has been shown. No XRD peak pattern of TiN wasobserved for all cases examined. We performed XPS
analysis for the nitrogen depth profile of the titanium
plate of the immersion experiment for 27 hours.
Experimental result and the simulation obtained with thenitrogen diffusion limit model are shown in Figure 5. We
determined that the boundary condition of N/Ti (nitrogen/ titanium) in the simulation was 0.47 obtained by XPS
analysis on the surface of the immersed titanium. Hanford
showed that the diffusion coefficient (cm2/s) of nitrogenin α-Titanium a given by Equation (4) [13].

concentration

The change of the nitrogen concentration in lithiumwith the immersion time was obtained. In addition, a blankexperiment was performed without using the getter
material. The results are shown in Figure 3Ͷͷʹͷʹ േ ʹʹͷͲ൰ሺͶሻܴܶ
R = universal gas constant (1.987cal/mol)
T = absolute temperature‫ ܦ‬ൌ ͳǤʹ ൈ ͳͲିଶ  െ ൬

The results show that the N/Ti ratio decrease with time,showing diffusion-induced. The results show that the N/Ti(nitrogen / titanium) ratio on the surface is about 0.5 andthe invasion of nitrogen in titanium by hot trapping is inaccordance with the diffusion of nitrogen in titanium.

Fig.3 Changes of nitrogen concentration in lithium
In the blank experiment, the variation of nitrogenconcentration was 22wt.ppm. Therefore, the decrease of
the nitrogen concentration in the immersion test with thegetter is statistically significant.
3.2 Observation nitrogen in titanium
We performed XRD analysis for the untreatedtitanium plate after immersion and after digging to 1.8 μm
from the surface. Since the sizes of these samples weredifferent, the intensities were so different. The results
normalized are shown in Figure 4 with the analytical dataof unimmersed titanium and the JCPDS data of thepowder X-ray diffraction of TiN.

Fig.5 XPS analysis of the titanium plate comparing witha simulation.

Fig.4 XRD analysis of the titanium plates
43

T. Higashi et al., Short-Term Nitrogen Trapping in Liquid Lithium by Pure Titanium

5. References[1][2]

Shiro Jitsukawa, J. Plasma Fusion Res. 84(5) , 253 (2008).
IFMIF International Team, IFMIF Comprehensive DesignReport, IEA (2004).
[3] T. Nishitani et al., Fusion Eng. Des. (2012), in press.
[4] A. Mosnier, U. Ratzinger, Fusion Eng. Des. 83, 1001
(2008).
[5] M. Sugimoto et al., J. Nucl. Mater. 307-311, 1691 (2004).
[6] P. Garin et al., J. Nucl. Mater. 417, 1262 (2011).
[7] H. Katsuta et al., J. Nucl. Mater. 71, 95 (1977).
[8] H. Nakamura et al., J. Nucl. Mater., 329, 202 (2004).
[9] S. Hirakane et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 75, 721 (2005).
[10] S. Hirakane et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 81, 665 (2006).
[11] J. Yagi et al., Fusion Eng. Des. 86, 2678-2681 (2011).
[12] Akihiro Suzuki, Purification : N Trap System, 6th IFMIF
Workshop,(2014).
[13] HanfordEngineering
Development
Laboratory,
EXPERIMENTAL LITHIUM SYSTEM FINAL REPORT,(1985).
[14] A. Aiello et al, Fusion Eng. Des. 88, 769-773 (2013).

3.3 Experiment in high nitrogen concentration.
In order to check the existence of nitrogen in titanium,
the immersion experiment of the titanium plate wasperformed in the conditions that the immersion time was
27 hours, the temperature was 600oC and the initial
nitrogen concentration was high, followed by TEM
observation of the titanium plate. The result is shown in
Figure 6.
According to the dark-field image, some titanium
nitride microcrystallites exist near the surface. In thecorresponding bright-field image, the nitrogen invadingfrom the surface are seen as the dark portions. Thus, mostnitrogen does not serve as TiN crystal formation and theformatiom of TiN takes place in limited crystal grains. It isconcluded that most of the nitrogen recovered is dissolvedin titanium in solution.

4. Conclusions

In this study, short-term immersion experiments inliquid lithium was performed using pure titanium plates.
The result showed effective nitrogen recovery by titanium.
At the early stage of the immersion, the trapped nitrogen
diffused into the bulk of titanium without forming surface
TiN films. Most of the nitrogen recovered was dissolvedin the titanium as a solution. Therefore, at the early stage,
the hot trapping with pure titanium was not inhibited by
TiN formation. Therefore the possibility of efficient
recovery is expected using pure titanium.
TiN microcrystallites

Fig.6 TEM observation of the titanium plate44