Lithium titanate (Li 2 TiO 3 ) is one of the promising candidate breeders for tritium self-sufficiency of deuterium(D)-tritium(T) fusion reaction. The differences in powder synthesis methods have a great impact on the properties of Li 2 TiO 3 powders and the performance of Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic pebbles. In this study, the Li 2 TiO 3 powders were successfully synthesized by hydrothermal method and solid-state method, and then the pebbles were fabricated by the agar-based wet method. The mechanism of hydrothermal synthesis of Li 2 TiO 3 powder was discussed.For the hydrothermal method, the Li 2 TiO 3 powder with single phase can be obtained when the rate of Li/Ti = 2.4, and the powder presented two different morphology, which involved two reaction mechanisms, including in-situ phase transformation mechanism and dissolution-precipitation mechanism, the phase transformation from α-Li 2 TiO 3 to β-Li 2 TiO 3 accomplished at 400 • C, which is lower than that of 750 • C for solid-state method. Li 2 TiO 3 pebbles prepared by the hydrothermal-wet method had a uniform pore distribution, an optimal grain size of 2.7 μm, a crushing load of 58.6 N, and relative density of 90.2%, respectively. In comparison, pebbles prepared by the solid-state-wet method also had better mechanical properties, which the crushing load and relative density were 53.9 N and 86.9% respectively under the optimal fabrication conditions.

Li 2 TiO 3 is considered as one of the best candidates for breeding materials. This article adopted a modification water-based sol-gel method to synthesize nano-Li 2 TiO 3 powders, which overcomes the poor phase purity, coarse grain, and inferior crushing strength described in the previous literature. In this paper, the thermal effect of the precursor, the crystal phase, and the morphology of the powders were characterized by thermogravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis (TG/DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. The nano-structured Li 2 TiO 3 powders with good dispersion and an average particle size of 20-50 nm were successfully synthesized at 600 • C by controlling PH and hydrolysis rate. Moreover, the phase transition temperature for the monoclinic phase β-Li 2 TiO 3 was as low as 600 • C, which is lower than 750 • C using the traditional solid-state method. Meanwhile, the morphology, porosity, crushing load, and thermal conductivity of ceramic pebbles are characterized systematically by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), mercury injection meter, compression strength equipment, and laser scattering method, respectively. Experimental results showed that the Li 2 TiO 3 ceramic pebbles with a sphericity of .98, crush load of 48.4 N, and relative density of 90.03 % were successfully prepared at 1050 • C for 2 h. This method will provide new guidance for the preparation of tritium breeders.