Research > Thermal Transformation of Solid
The transformation reactions of solid compounds such as reduction, oxidation and dehydration are studied experimentally in order to determine the reaction mechanisms, the transformation kinetic laws, and to model industrial heterogeneous reactors for better mastery of the process and of product quality.
During thermal processing, solids can undergo various transformations: grain size change in a divided solid, crystal structure modification, chemical transformation, chemical reactions through germination and new phase nucleation and growth. The purpose is to design a study methodology which involves the fundamental concepts of heterogeneous kinetics and the thermodynamics of point defects. Experimental results are interpreted within the framework of models and help validate them.
Current subjects of investigation are as follows:
oxidation of zirconium alloys (nuclear fuel cracking) by water vapor modeling of non-isothermal or non-isobaric reactions kaolinite dehydroxylation uranium oxide reduction by ammonia (for nuclear fuel manufacturing) preparation and characterization of thick film cathodes for SOFC fuel cells