Corrosion Behavior of Pyro-Carbon in Hot Lithium Molten Salt Under an Oxidation Atmosphere

The electrolytic reduction of a spent oxide fuel involves liberation of the oxygen in a molten LiCl electrolyte, which is a chemically aggressive environment that is too crosive for typical structural materials. Therefore, it is essential to choose the optimum material for the process equipment for handling a molten salt. In this study, the corrosion behavior of pyro-carbon made by CVD was investigated in a molten LiCl-$Li_2O$ salt under an oxidation atmosphere at $650^{\circ}C$ and $750^{\circ}C$ for 72 hours. Pyro-carbon showed no chemical reactions with the molten salt because of its low wettability between pyro-carbon and the molten salt. As a result of XRD analysis, pyro-carbon exposed to the molten salt showed pure graphite after corrosion tests. As a result of TGA, whereas the coated layer by CVD showed high anti-oxidation, the non-coated layer showed relatively low anti-oxidation. The stable phases in the reactions were $C_{(S)}$, $Li_2CO_{3(S)}$, $LiCl_{(l)}$, $Li_2O$ at $650^{\circ}C$ and $C_{(S)}$, $LiCl_{(l)}$, $Li_2O_{(S)}$ at $750^{\circ}C$. $Li_2CO_{(S)}$ was decomposed at $750^{\circ}C$ into $Li_2O_{(S)}$ and $CO_{2(g)}$.

산화성 고온 리튬용융염계 분위기에서 Pyro-Carbon의 부식거동