Adsorption Characteristics of Water Vapor on Gamma-Lithium Aluminate

Lithium aluminate (LiAl0₂) is one of the probable candidates for tritium breeding material because of its potential to give a fair tritium breeding ratio, stability at high temperature and stability in atmosphere containing water vapor. Clarification of the adsorption performances of water on LiAl0₂ is important for optimization of the way to recover bred tritium from LiAl0₂ and for estimation of the tritium inventory in the breeding blanket and for quantification of the hydrogen isotope exchange reaction. The amount of water captured on LiAl0₂ was studied in the temperature range of 373~1,100K using the breakthrough curve method, and adsorption isobar and isotherm of water on LiAl0₂ were proposed based on the data obtained. The water capture phenomena of LiAl0₂ was attributed to the dissociative chemisorption, and the apparent activation energy was determined to be 32.2 kJ/mol.K. The tritium inventory by sorption for LiAl0₂ was compared with that for Li₂0.