b'Demonstration of Microfluidics for Synthesis of Sol-gel FeedstocksPrincipal Investigator: JW McMurray, ORNLTeam Members/ Collaborators: A McAlister, RD Hunt, KM Cooley, AT Nelson (ORNL)Figure 1. Flow sheet for the internalS ol-gel production has long beenexplores the opportunities for micro-gelation system with microfluidics.used for synthesis of uraniumfluidics to pair with the wet chemistry compounds for use in particleprocesses used for sol-gel fabrication fuels (e.g., tri-structural isotropicand overcome these limitations.(TRISO)) as well as transuranic- Project Description:containing fuel forms where radio- The objective of this research is to logical concerns limit dry processing.develop a processing pathway that One accepted drawback of traditionalgoes beyond conventional sol-gel sol-gel production is that fuel kernelequipment to produce particle fuel sizes are generally limited to awith greater ranges in size from minimum of several hundred microm- submicron to 1mm in diameter, eters, and the yield of a conventionalhigher yields with tighter tolerances, sol-gel process will be a distributionand greater flexibility in process of sizes. Sieving is then requiredvariables or additives using an to narrow the particle size usedautomated microfluidics design.This for subsequent processing therebytechnology enables post processing for reducing process yield. This workadvanced, accident tolerant fuel (ATF) 58 2019|AFC ACCOMPLISHMENTS'