Synthesis of nanoporous titanium aerogel through sol-gel method for efficient purification of helium-3

Abstract Adsorption and separation of trace tritium ( 3 H ) from helium-3 ( 3 He) signify meaningful value for the future 3 He nuclear fusion. However, low-efficiency hydrogen adsorption materials limit the development and application of 3 He. This work synthesized and optimized nanoporous titanium aerogel through sol-gel process and supercritical ethanol drying for efficient purification of Helium-3. The titanium aerogel with uniform element distribution and good consistency was achieved. The influences of titanium content, adsorption temperature and adsorption pressure on hydrogen purification performance were studied in detail. We found that hydrogen adsorption rate constant k a is temperature dependent but pressure independent. The hydrogen adsorption rate decreases with the increase of temperature but increases with pressure rising. More importantly, deep purification verification was carried out using trace 3 H feed gas. After three-stage purification with titanium aerogel, the 3 H removal factor of the feed gas reached 10 7 , which has satisfied the application of 3 He gas in the field of neutron detection.