Perovskite–Ni composite: A potential route for management of radioactive metallic waste

•Management of radioactive Ni based metallic wastes.•Microstructure of Ni/NiO–perovskite composite.•Interaction of Ni/NiO–perovskite composite with simulated high level waste glass melt. Management of nickel – based radioactive metallic wastes is a difficult issue. To arrest the release of hazardous material to the environment it is proposed to develop perovskite coating for the metallic wastes. Polycrystalline BaCe0.8Y0.2O3−δ perovskite with orthorhombic structure has been synthesized by sol–gel route. Crystallographic analyses show, the perovskite belong to orthorhombic Pmcn space group at room temperature, and gets converted to orthorhombic Incn space group at 623K, cubic Pm3m space group (with a=4.434Å) at 1173K and again orthorhombic Pmcn space group at room temperature after cooling. Similar observations have been made from micro-Raman study as well. Microstructural studies of BaCe0.8Y0.2O3−δ–NiO/Ni composites showed absence of any reaction product at the interface. This suggests that both the components (i.e. perovskite and NiO/Ni) of the composite are compatible to each other. Interaction of BaCe0.8Y0.2O3−δ–NiO/Ni composites with simulated barium borosilicate waste glass melt also did not reveal any reaction product at the interfaces. Importantly, uranium from the waste glass melt was found to be partitioned within BaCe0.8Y0.2O3−δ perovskite structure. It is therefore concluded that BaCe0.8Y0.2O3−δ can be considered as a good coating material for management of radioactive Ni based metallic wastes.