The Sol-Gel Process

Format is approximately 11 inches by 8.5 inches. Forty pages plus covers. Illustrated covers (color). Illustrations (some in color). References. Cover has slight wear and soiling. This booklet presents information on the Sol-Gel Process Exhibit which was to show the process steps required for preparing, by the Sol-Gel Process, thorium-based nuclear fuels suitable for both water-cooled and gas-cooled reactors. The process is shown in flowsheet form, with operating displays included to show how to process steps are accomplished. This brochure describes the various process steps and engineering facilities shown on the exhibit. The exhibit was prepared of the Office of Organization for International Conference, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, for the Third United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. The sol-gel process, developed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, provides a stable colloidal suspension of various ceramic materials. This suspension, or sol, may be concentrated, dried, and fired at low temperatures to form dense ceramic bodies. They use standard ceramic equipment and the concentrated sol, or clay, with powder additions to extrude pure oxide ceramic bodies of various shapes and controlled density. The extrusion blend requires no extraneous binders or plasticizers. They have demonstrated in laboratory-scale work that this process produces high-strength solid and cored extrusions of thoria fired at 1150°C with controlled densities ranging from 70 to 99% of theoretical and with diameters up to l/2 in. (±0.001 in.) and lengths to 3 in. They have defined the effects of various powder additions and drying conditions on extrusion quality and density. This process, proven in the thoria system, may make improvement and greater economy possible in the fabrication technology for ceramic shapes of zirconia, alumina, and other ceramics amenable to the sol-gel process.…