Lithium carbonate is a raw material for the preparation of a variety of lithium compounds, and is most widely used in lithium salt products. In recent years, the demand for high purity lithium carbonate is increasing as the quality of lithium carbonate products at home and abroad is getting higher .
Li2CO3 is a colorless monoclinic crystal or white powder with a density of 2.11g/cm3 and a melting point of 723℃ (at a pressure equal to 101kPa), soluble in hydrochloric acid, slightly soluble in water, its solubility in water decreases with increasing temperature, and insoluble in organic solvents such as alcohol and acetone.
As a basic lithium salt, lithium carbonate is the most basic and critical product in the lithium industry, residing in good stability, low production costs and other advantages, but also can be used directly as an intermediate product in the production of lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, lithium bromide and other lithium salts.
Different raw materials, Li2CO3 preparation methods are also different, the main atmosphere of lithium extraction from ore and lithium brine from salt lakes to prepare Li2CO3
Whether it is lithium extraction from ore or lithium extraction from salt lake brine preparation Li2CO3, the made Li2CO3 is generally lower purity industrial grade Li2CO3, need to be further purified to remove some impurity ions, to get high purity Li2CO3, in order to prepare lithium-ion battery cathode materials and electronic devices and optical devices and other high-precision instrumentation materials.
Lithium carbonate is widely used, and is an indispensable raw material in the following important industrial fields: glass, ceramics, energy, metallurgy, batteries, medicine and other fields.
Different industries have different requirements for lithium carbonate, and purity is a very important indicator of lithium carbonate. Through the different requirements of purity lithium carbonate can be divided into four levels: industrial grade lithium carbonate, battery grade lithium carbonate, pharmaceutical grade lithium carbonate, high purity grade lithium carbonate.
Industrial grade lithium carbonate is widely used in ceramics, welding, glass, aluminum smelting, lithium alloy, electronics industry, television, aerospace and other fields.
Battery grade lithium carbonate, used exclusively, is mainly used as raw materials for the preparation of electrode materials and electrolyte materials for lithium primary batteries and lithium ion batteries.
Medical grade lithium carbonate, can be used for the treatment of mania and emotional psychosis, at the same time can play a good role in the prevention of mania, known as "emotional correction agent", and at the same time can be synthesized in other aspects of the lithium compounds in medicine.
High purity grade lithium carbonate, mainly used in the preparation of electronic materials and optical industrial materials, lithium-ion battery cathode materials and electrolytes, lithium tantalate and lithium niobate single crystal of the main raw materials
With the rapid growth of new energy, military industry and aerospace, the preparation of high-purity lithium carbonate has become a hot spot for research. The key step in the preparation of high purity lithium carbonate is the removal of impurities, and the impurities of calcium and magnesium are very difficult to remove because their properties are very similar to lithium, which is the biggest difficulty in the preparation of high purity lithium carbonate.
High-purity lithium carbonate has been widely used in batteries, medicine, military, aerospace and other fields, and is the raw material for the preparation of other high-purity lithium salts.
In addition, there are serious technical problems in the preparation of 5N grade (purity >99.999%) Li2CO3 in China, which mostly rely on imports. It is important to break through the technical barriers and realize the industrial production of 5N grade Li2CO3 for the development of Li2CO3 industry in China.