THERMODYNAMIC PREDICTION OF THE STABILITY OF CERAMIC MATERIALS IN BINARY MELT Sn-20 % Li
The attractiveness of the idea of using liquid metals as materials in contact with the tokamak plasma is due to the simplicity of heat removal from the energy-loaded receiving elements of the fusion reactor by a fast-flowing liquid metal flow, self-healing of the liquid metal surface, and the possibility of creating drop curtains that are in principle insensitive to the effects of alternating magnetic fields of the tokamak. Liquid metals have unique properties as materials in contact with the plasma-facing components of fusion reactors. They are practically not subject to irreversible damage under the influence of neutron and plasma radiation. This study is devoted to the substantiation of the method of thermodynamic analysis of the interaction of binary and ternary metal oxides with a liquid Sn-20 % Li alloy in relation to the operating conditions of liquid metal systems of tokamaks. The need to predict the chemical stability of ceramic materials in contact with a lithium-tin alloy is due to the growing interest in the use of these liquid alloys as a liquid metal component of capillary-porous systems. In Li-Sn melts, it is the chemical activity of lithium as one of the components of the melt that determines the thermodynamics and kinetics of the inter-action of this alloy with oxides of other metals. An analysis of the results of calculating the Gibbs energy of reactions between metal oxides and liquid Li-Sn alloys made it possible to evaluate the effect of temperature and lithium content in the alloy on the stability of a number of ceramics in a liquid metal medium.