• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.303-309
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• 2004

Pyrochlores were known as promising materials for the immobilization of radioactive actinide. Accordingly, we synthesized pyrochlores with Gd$_2$Ti$_2$$O_7$ and Gd$_2$Zr$_2$$O_7$compositions by sintering method, and studied its properties and phase relations in Gd-Ti-O and Gd-Zr-O system. The mixed powders were pressed into pellets under 200-400 kgf/cm$^2$ at room temperature. and then sintered at 1000-1$600^{\circ}C$ for 0.5-40 hours. The synthesized samples were analyzed and were identified with XRD and SEM/EDS analyses. The optimal synthetic conditions of pyrochlores with Gd$_2$Ti$_2$$O_7$composition were at 140$0^{\circ}C$/0.5hrs, 130$0^{\circ}C$/3hrs and 120$0^{\circ}C$/20hrs. Its chemical composition was $Gd_{2.0-2.1}$$Ti_{1.9-2.0}$$O_7$ and similar to the stoichiometric composition without any relationship in temperature and atmosphere. The optimal synthetic conditions of pyrochlores with $Gd_{2}$$Zr_{2}$$O_7$composition were at 155$0^{\circ}C$/40hrs and 1$600^{\circ}C$/30hrs. The compositions of pyrochlore synthesized from these optimal conditions were irregular with $Gd_{1.5-2.4}$$Zr_{1.7-2.4}$$O_7$. Such heterogeneity indicates that the reaction rate of pyrochlore with Gd$_2$Zr$_2$$O_7$composition is very low, and then its equilibrium state could not be attained even for 40 hours which was the longest sintering time in this research.