Can Lithium6 be created from Deutium + Helium4

[Sebastiaan]

Question, could Lithium6 be created from fusion between Deteurium and Helium4 in a particle accelerator/cyclotron. I understand this fusion will cost power, but the question but would it be possible?

What other methods are there of creating Lithium6?

 

[PAllen]

Well, in theory you could use tritium-tritium fusion followed by beta decay of the helium-6. Not very practical, but it does happen in stars (at least it's exothermic, even though very hard to produce):

https://books.google.com/books?id=dLhfCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA193&lpg=PA193&dq=tritium+tritium+fusion+lithium+6&source=bl&ots=Ia0ALHzbbj&sig=A9b0btVSR0puHfGVC9C659qRwP8&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiTi9n00PrMAhVEcz4KHZWVBE04FBDoAQgoMAI#v=onepage&q=tritium tritium fusion lithium 6&f=false

 

[Sebastiaan]

Intresting, is Tritium-Tritium Fusion more effective than Deteurium-Helium4 ? Why would Tritium - Tritium Fusion not be very practical, at least it's a single atom so you have no side reaction durring a collision

Now what is the main source of Lithium6 syntysis in the universe? Obviously it is not from the Big Bang

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2014/sep/02/big-bang-ruled-out-as-origin-of-lithium-6

 

[PAllen]

Well, your own reference indicates the source of most lithium 6 is currently unknown. If they don't know, I don't know. Presumably, tritium-tritium fusion is stars has been computed to be insufficient as a source.

 

[PAllen]

Another option, in the link I gave previously, is tritium - helium-3 fusion to lithium-6 and gamma.

 

[mfb]

The most reasonable fusion reaction is T + He-4 -> Li-6 + n.
If you want to produce a stable nucleus as only fusion product, then you have to hit its energy "exactly" to conserve energy and momentum. Energies are never exact, so the only realistic option is to hit a resonant state and hope that it decays to the ground state. That won't happen frequently. A reaction with two decay products is much more likely, the excess energy can go into kinetic energy of the products.

Li-6 can be produced in high-energetic cosmic ray collisions, for example. Reference

 

[Sebastiaan]

I guess that means the energy of the Neutron is variable depending on the remaining energy after the fusion into Helium6. So basically you do the reverse of Lithium6 neutron capture which can accept a variable energy neutron as well

That leaves us with the problem of Tritium, are there other ways of creating Tritium besides neutron dirty Deteurium Fusion?

 

[mfb]

That leaves us with the problem of Tritium, are there other ways of creating Tritium besides neutron dirty Deteurium Fusion?

What do you want to do?

The reaction I listed is just one example. Li-7 + anything high-energetic works as well with some probability.

 

[SteamKing]

I guess that means the energy of the Neutron is variable depending on the remaining energy after the fusion into Helium6. So basically you do the reverse of Lithium6 neutron capture which can accept a variable energy neutron as well

That leaves us with the problem of Tritium, are there other ways of creating Tritium besides neutron dirty Deteurium Fusion?

There are several, as discussed here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium

Whichever method you choose has its drawbacks, and in some reactions, the yield of tritium would be quite small, making this substance extremely expensive.

In some 40 years of U.S. production, beginning in 1955, only about 225 kg of tritium had been produced, with only a fraction of that production remaining on hand in storage. Because of the half-life of tritium is so short, it must be continually produced to maintain an adequate supply for whatever ultimate purpose.