Electron beam synthesis of CaZrTi2O7 zirconolite ceramics
摘要
Zirconolite (CaZrTi2O7) is the best suited material for radioactive waste immobilization and management. Its synthesis is a cost- and time-demanding process. In this work, a ceramic material, primarily containing the zirconolite phase, is for the first time synthesized within a few seconds. Its synthesis is performed in air by heating a mixture of CaTiO3, ZrO2 and TiO2 powders using a high-power, fast-electron beam. The irradiation regimes are used, during which all of the mixture components melt, resulting in a liquid-phase, high-rate synthesis of a new ceramic material. The zirconolite phase accounts for more than 80% of the synthesized ceramics and exhibits low porosity. It is shown that a thermal annealing treatment of the resulting ceramic product in a high-power, fast-electron beam allows considerably increasing the zirconolite phase content in it.