Palladium-catalysed oxidative diffusion

A potential application of the WGS reaction carried out in an MR is represented by the tritium recovery process from tritiated water from breeder blanket fluids in fusion reactor systems. The hydrogen isotopes separation at low concentration in gaseous mixtures is a typical problem of the fusion reactor fuel cycle. In fact, the tritium produced in the breeder needs a proper extraction process to reach the required purity level. Yoshida et al. (1984) carried out experimental and theoretical studies of a catalytic reduction method which allows tritium recovery from tritiated water with a high conversion value (> 99.99%) at a relatively low temperature, while Hsu and Buxbaum (1986) studied a palladium-catalysed oxidative diffusion... 

In 1996, a report appeared in Nature of experiments in which a 500 nm thick film of 5dtrium (coated with a 5-20 nm layer of palladium to prevent aerial oxidation) was subjected to 10 Pa pressure of H2 gas at room temperature. As H2 diffused through the Pd layer, the latter catalysed the dissociation of H2 into H atoms which then entered the yttrium lattice. A series of observations followed ... 

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