Some how I missed this Hall Thruster news: the ongoing saga of ionic erosion, here xenon against carbon. Illinois are trying to mimic this in a well-walla laboratory.
I take it that the Hall-with-wall shall be used for some time.
We have xenon-carbon Halls in orbit, so effectively they are the laboratory. On Earth, labs have, like, walls and stuff. Xenon flies into the chamber wall and returns to the thruster with more ions. That's not happening in space even assuming Kessler.
The lab reduced this effect and found that the type of carbon didn't matter; it all erodes - "sputters" - the same, even diamond. So it's not a crystal problem, it's a chemical problem. At least, using xenon.
The same technique will be needed for krypton-84, which as a lighter element than Xe-131 will be flung out that much faster.
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