Studio di Processi di Produzione di Materiali Ceramici per il Settore Energetico

One of the major last century environmental issues is progressive global warming, which has severely speeded up for 150 years now, consistent with industrial development. Nuclear fusion represents one of the most promising perspective of green energy production. This reaction occurs between deuterium and tritium and allows to obtain the highest energy amount per unit of fuel compared to conventional routes. The main concern is the scarce naturally available tritium amount, which can be solved using lithium-6 isotope-based ceramics. The present thesis work fits into the context of two broader projects, i.e. ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) and DEMO (DEMOnstration power plant). In particular, we set breeding materials production processes generating lithium orthosilicate ceramics pebbles by drip casting method. Starting from previous protocols, we improved reaction precursors preparation (sol-gel) and pebbles production procedure. Through a Design of Experiment (DOE), we obtained statistically significant mathematical models highlighting the relative influence of each chosen parameter upon pebbles final properties (e.g. density, diameter, shrinkage). Moreover, in the perspective of a conjunct project with Nuclear Engineering Department, we scaled up the process to obtain wider ceramics amount that will be employed in thermal conductivity studies