Recovery of hydrogen isotopes by pd-coated zrni from inert gas atmosphere containing impurities

Effect of Pd coating on recovery of hydrogen isotopes from inert gas atmosphere was investigated for intermetallic compounds ZrNi. Powder of ZrNi was coated with Pd by electroless plating. Subsequent annealing at 1,073 K led to the formation of ZrPd at the powder surface. The durability in deuterium recovery from Ar gas was examined for the bare and the Pd-coated powders at temperatures from 373 to 573 K as well as the kinetics of deuterium absorption and desorption. The absorption and desorption of deuterium obeyed the first and the second order kinetics, respectively. The ZrPd layer on ZrNi did not alter the absorption and the desorption kinetics. The deuterium recovery by the bare powder was degraded with time owing to oxidation of powder surfaces by impurities contained in the Ar gas. The durability in deuterium recovery was markedly improved by Pd coating, and no significant degradation was observed for the Pd-coated specimen at 573 K. This difference in the durability was ascribed to the difference in the oxidation behavior between ZrNi and ZrPd. It was concluded that Pd coating significantly improves the applicability of ZrNi to tritium recovery in blanket systems.