Preliminary studies of in-cell electrophoresis as 6Li enrichment technique

The development of a Li-6 enrichment technique in terms of technical reliability and scalability to reach future Li-6 requirement, represents a key step in the roadmap of fusion programmes worldwide. This paper presents the technique of liquid bath electrophoresis as one of the most promising method (simple, cheap and scalable to demands) for achieving the necessary enriched lithium production. The aim of this work is to carry out the process and conceive a prototype cell whose design allows the connection in series of several units in order to form a linear cascade. In this study we also present the possible materials for their construction (housing and electrodes) as well as the lithium ion conductors that can be used as electrophoretic membranes. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.