Waste Form of Silver Iodide (AgI) with Low-Temperature Sintering Glasses

This study focuses on the fabrication and characterization of waste forms of silver iodide (AgI) using low-temperature sintering glasses. We investigated the glass composition of bismuth-phosphate-zinc oxide, which enables low-temperature sintering to fabricate waste forms of AgI. We confirm that novel waste forms were fabricated with Bi2O3-P2O5-MxOy glasses, where MxOy is a metal oxide, such as ZnO, CaO (or CaCO3), MgO, or Na2O (or Na2CO3), at sintering temperatures of 600–650°C. The samples were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy-dispersive spectroscopy (SEM-EDS), inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission/absorption spectrometry (ICP-AES/AAS), and ion chromatography (IC) used for product consistency testing (PCT). Our findings indicate that chemically durable waste forms of AgI were formed and that the loss of iodine during heat treatment was effectively suppressed by a low sintering temperature.