Abstract:
This paper used Nd
3+ as a surrogate element of Am
3+ to simulate the study of the stable curing effect of zirconolite on the radioactive element Am
3+. The phase evolution behavior caused by Ca
2+ sites in the lattice of Ca
1-xNdxZrTi
2O
7+x/2 with Nd
3+ heterovalent substitution was systematically investigated. The Ca
1-xNdxZrTi
2O
7+x/2 (0≤
x≤1.0) ceramic samples were prepared by high temperature solid-state synthesis and characterized by XRD, Raman, BSE, and EDS analysis. The experimental results showed that the solid solution content of Nd
3+ ion could reach up to 70% (viz.
x=0.7) in the zirconolite lattice. This indicated that the Nd
3+ ion as a substitution element could effectively simulate Am
3+ solidification in the zirconolite lattice. However, as the doping amount of Nd
3+ (
x ≤ 0.3) increased, the disordering of the O
2-and Nd
3+ ions in the zirconolite-2M lattice increased gradually. On the contrary, the (Ca/Nd)-O chemical bond was slightly shortened. Until
x=0.4, the O
2- coordination number around some Zr
4+ and Ti
4+ ions changed (ZrO
7→ZrO
8, TiO
5→TiO
6), partly the zirconolite-2M structure rearrangement to the zirconolite-4M structure. When x=0.5, all the zirconolite-2M structure was converted into zirconolite-4M structure, and the ordering of the O
2- and Nd
3+ cations increased again, with the Ti-O chemical bond slightly elongated. With increasing
x (
x=0.6、0.7 ), the sample still retained a single zirconolite-4M structure, but the ordering of the O
2- and Nd
3+ cations gradually decreased. When
x =0.7, the Ca
2+、Zr
4+、Nd
3+ions exhibited a subtle amount of pyrochlore structure arrangement in the sublattice. When 0.8≤
x ≤ 0.9, the samples converted to a polyphase coexistence state (Pyrochlore, ZrTiO
4 and Nd
2(TiZr)
4O
11). Finally, a single Nd
2(TiZr)
4O
11 solid solution phase was observed when
x =1.0. Further, the composition and microstructure of coexisting phases were verified by BSE and EDS.