Abstract
The dissolved oxygen concentration must be well controlled in liquid Pb for use as a primary coolant of fast spectrum nuclear reactors. We have measured fundamental data of oxygen in liquid Pb. The Sieverts constant and solubility of oxygen were measured by coulometric titration. Thermal cycling of liquid Pb allowed a quantification of the excess oxygen above solubility required to initiate solid PbO nucleation, which is the metastable limit in liquid Pb. The data obtained in this study are as follows:
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Sieverts constant (k): \({\text{log }}k \left( {{\text{bar}}^{0.5} \,{\text{wt}}.{\text{\% }}^{ - 1} } \right) = 2.43 - \frac{6700}{T}\quad \left( {{623}\,{\text{K}} < T < {823}\,{\text{K}}} \right)\)
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Solubility (Co,s): \(\log C_{{{\text{o}},{\text{s}}}} { }\left( {{\text{wt}}.{\text{\% }}} \right) = 2.90 - \frac{4863}{T}\quad \left( {{623}\,{\text{K}} < T < {823}\,{\text{K}}} \right)\)
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Metastable limit for PbO nucleation (Co,m): \(\log C_{{{\text{o}},{\text{m}}}} { }\left( {{\text{wt}}.{\text{\% }}} \right) = 2.67 - \frac{4631}{T}\quad \left( {{663}\,{\text{K}} < T < { 790}\,{\text{K}}} \right).\)
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Acknowledgements
This work is supported by the Belgian government through the MYRRHA project. The technical assistance of Stefan Huysmans (SCK CEN) is greatly appreciated.
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Lim, J., Gladinez, K., Marino, A. et al. Solubility of Oxygen and Metastable Limit for PbO Nucleation in Liquid Pb. JOM 73, 4023–4029 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-021-04909-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11837-021-04909-2