Lithium electrolysis

As Table 21.1 indicates, the group 1 elements, the alkali metals, are relatively abundant. Some of their compounds have been known and used since prehistoric times. Yet these elements were not isolated in pure form until about 200 years ago. The compounds of the alkali metals are difficult to decompose by ordinary chemical means, so discovery of the elements had to await new scientific developments. Sodium (1807) and potassium (1807) were discovered through electrolysis. Lithium was discovered in 1817. Cesium (1860) and rubidium (1861) were identified as new elements through their emission spectra. Francium (1939) was isolated in the radioactive decay products of actinium. 

Lithium metal can also be produced by electrolysis in nonprotic solvents. Other methods based on reduction by metals, eg, aluminum or siHcon from the chloride or by magnesium from the oxide, have not had practical commercial appHcation. 

Lithium Chloride. Lithium chloride [7447- 1-8], LiCl, is produced from the reaction of Hthium carbonate or hydroxide with hydrochloric acid. The salt melts at 608°C and bods at 1382°C. The 41-mol % LiCl—59-mol % KCl eutectic (melting point, 352°C) is employed as the electrolyte in the molten salt electrolysis production of Hthium metal. It is also used, often with other alkaH haHdes, in brazing flux eutectics and other molten salt appHcations such as electrolytes for high temperature Hthium batteries. 

Other Metals. AH the sodium metal produced comes from electrolysis of sodium chloride melts in Downs ceUs. The ceU consists of a cylindrical steel cathode separated from the graphite anode by a perforated steel diaphragm. Lithium is also produced by electrolysis of the chloride in a process similar to that used for sodium. The other alkaH and alkaHne-earth metals can be electrowon from molten chlorides, but thermochemical reduction is preferred commercially. The rare earths can also be electrowon but only the mixture known as mischmetal is prepared in tonnage quantity by electrochemical means. In addition, beryIHum and boron are produced by electrolysis on a commercial scale in the order of a few hundred t/yr. Processes have been developed for electrowinning titanium, tantalum, and niobium from molten salts. These metals, however, are obtained as a powdery deposit which is not easily separated from the electrolyte so that further purification is required. 

Beryllium. Beryllium [7440-41-7], Be, metal is produced by electrolysis of KCl—NaCl—BeCl2 melts. Temperatures up to 900°C are required. CeU voltages are 6 to 9 V (115). Electrolysis of mixtures of beryUium oxide [1304-56-9], BeO, ia lithium fluoride [7789-24-4], LiF, and beryUium fluoride [7787-49-7], BeF2, has produced beryUium metal at about 700°C and 2.6 V (116). DetaUs of fused salt metal winning processes are given ia Table 7. 

Lithium is extracted from the ores lepidolite and spodumene, which contain up to 8% lithium oxide. The ore is converted first to lithium sulfate by acid roasting at 250°C and then to lithium chloride via the carbonate. Electrolysis of the fused... 

A number of electrolytic processes are used for the industrial production of metals. Some metals such as zinc, copper, manganese, gallium, chromium, etc. are electrowon from aqueous baths. Another common electrolytic process used is molten salt electrolysis. The most important application of molten salt electrolysis till now has been in the electrowinning of metals. Today aluminum, magnesium, lithium, sodium, calcium, boron, cerium, tantalum, and mischmetal are produced in tonnage quantities by molten salt electrolysis. As a representative example, the electrowinning process for aluminum is taken up. 

The Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America) process involves the electrolysis of aluminum chloride which is carried out in a molten bath of the composition 50% sodium chloride, 45% lithium chloride and 5% aluminum chloride, maintained at 700 °C. The Bayer process, which involves the production of pure alumina by the dissolution of bauxite with caustic soda and which has been described in the chapter on hydrometallurgy, must be taken into account while presenting a complete picture of the aluminum extraction flowsheet. It... 

The electrolyte is made by in situ chlorination of vanadium to vanadium dichloride in a molten salt bath. Higher valent chlorides are difficult to retain in the bath and thus are not preferred. The molten bath, which is formed by sodium chloride or an equimolar mixture of potassium chloride-sodium chloride or of potassium chloride-lithium chloride or of sodium chloride-calcium chloride, is contained in a graphite crucible. The crucible also serves as an anode. Electrolysis is conducted at a temperature about 50 °C above the melting point of the salt bath, using an iron or a molybdenum cathode and a cathode current density of 25 to 75 A dnT2. The overall electrochemical deposition reaction involves the formation and the discharge of the divalent ionic species, V2+ ... 

Benkeser and Tincher 128>, on the other hand, reduced acetylenes preferentially to trans olefins using solvated electrons generated at a platinum cathode by electrolytic reduction of lithium chloride in methylamine [lithium metal is formed from lithium ion at the cathode in this electrolysis its dissolution in methylamine generates the solvated electron and regenerates lithium... 

Heptyl 3-Phenylpropyl Ether [Electrogenerated Acid-Promoted Reduction of an Aldehyde to an Unsymmetrical Ether].333 A mixture of 1-heptanal (1.0 mmol), 3-phenylpropoxytrimethylsilane (1.2 mmol), tetra-n-butylammonium perchlorate (0.1 mmol), and lithium perchlorate (0.1 mmol) was dissolved in CH2CI2 (3 mL) in an undivided cell. The mixture was electrolyzed under constant current (1.67 mA cm-2) with platinum electrodes at ambient temperature. After 5 minutes, dimethylphenylsilane (1.2 mmol) was added drop-wise and the electrolysis was continued (0.06 Faraday/mol). After completion of the reaction, one drop of Et3N was added and the solution was concentrated. The residue was chromatographed on Si02 to give 1-heptyl 3-phenylpropyl... 

TT-ALLYLNICKEL HALIDES METHALLYLBENZENE, 52, 115 Rearrangement of epoxides to allylic alcohols, 53, 17 Reduction, by controlled-po-tential electrolysis, 52, 22 by lithium aluminum hydride of exo-3,4-dichlorobicyclo [3.2.l]oct-2-ene to 3-chlorobicyclo[3.2.l]oct-2-ene, 51, 61... 

Some metals are extracted in electrolytic cells. In section 11.3, you saw the extraction of sodium from molten sodium chloride in a Downs cell. Other reactive metals, including lithium, beryllium, magnesium, calcium, and radium, are also extracted industrially by the electrolysis of their molten chlorides. 

Endo et al. investigated the reductive decomposition of various electrolytes on graphite anode materials by electron spin resonance (ESR). In all of the electrolyte compositions investigated, which included LiC104, LiBF4, and LiPFe as salts and PC, DMC, and other esters or ethers as solvents, the solvent-related radical species, which were considered to be the intermediates of reductive decomposition, were detected only after prolonged cathodic electrolysis. With the aid of molecular orbital calculation, they found that the reduction of salt anion species is very difficult, as indicated by their positive reduction enthalpy and that of free solvent (A/4 — 1 kcal mol ). However, the coordination of lithium ions with these solvents dramatically reduces the corresponding reduction enthalpy (A/ —10 kcal mol ) and renders the reaction thermodynamically favored. In other words, if no kinetic factors were to be considered, the SEI formed on carbonaceous anodes... 

For this section, yield of the head-to-head product is relevant. In DMF with 0.1 M of tetra-butylammonium perchlorate, electrolysis of acetophenone at the potential of the first one-electron wave produces this dimer in 30% yield. This is in accord with the earlier-mentioned prediction that all the three directions of this dimerization are equally probable. If lithium perchlorate is the supporting electrolyte in the same solution, the head-to-head dimer yield rises to 70% (GuTtyai et al. 1987a). Hence, head-to-head coupling becomes the main route of dimerization. 

Lithium is contained in minute amounts in the mineral ores of spodumene, lepidolite, and amblygonite, which are found in the United States and several countries in Europe, Africa, and South America. High temperatures are required to extract lithium from its compounds and by electrolysis of lithium chloride. It is also concentrated by solar evaporation of salt brine in lakes. 

Cyclodehydration of 2-phenylthiocyclohexanone with a variety of reagents yielding 1,2,3,4-tetrahydrodibenzothiophene (64) as an oil has been reported,and represents the simplest way of obtaining this material (88%). Alternatively, reduction of 4-keto-1,2,3,4-tetrahydrodibenzothiophene under Huang-Minlon conditions affords 64 in high yield.Trace amounts of 64 were detected in the reduction of dibenzothiophene with calcium hexamine and during electrolysis in ethylenediamine-lithium chloride solution (Section III, C,4). Peracetic acid oxidizes 64 to its sulfone (65%), which... 

Alkynes can be reduced electrolytically. Internal alkynes gave 65-80% yields of cis alkenes when electrolysed in 10% sulfuric acid in ethanol at spongy nickel cathode [127], or predominantly trans alkenes if the electrolysis was carried out in a methylamine solution of lithium chloride. The yields of the alkenes and the ratios of trans to cis alkenes varied depending on whether the electrolysis was carried out in divided or undivided cells (yields 24-80%, composition of product 89-99% of trans alkene) [379]. 

Reduction of a,/3-unsaturated to saturated ketones was further achieved by electrolysis in a neutral medium using copper or lead cathodes (yields 55-75%) [766], with lithium in propylamine (yields 40-65%) [876], with potassium-graphite clathrate CgK (yields 57-85%) [807], and with zinc in acetic acid (yield 87%) [688]. Reduction with amalgamated zinc in hydrochloric acid (Clemmensen reduction) usually reduces both functions [877]. 

High yields of amines have also been obtained by reduction of amides with an excess of magnesium aluminum hydride (yield 100%) [577], with lithium trimethoxyaluminohydride at 25° (yield 83%) [94] with sodium bis(2-methoxy-ethoxy)aluminum hydride at 80° (yield 84.5%) [544], with alane in tetra-hydrofuran at 0-25° (isolated yields 46-93%) [994, 1117], with sodium boro-hydride and triethoxyoxonium fluoroborates at room temperature (yields 81-94%) [1121], with sodium borohydride in the presence of acetic or trifluoroacetic acid on refluxing (yields 20-92.5%) [1118], with borane in tetrahydrofuran on refluxing (isolated yields 79-84%) [1119], with borane-dimethyl sulflde complex (5 mol) in tetrahydrofuran on refluxing (isolated yields 37-89%) [1064], and by electrolysis in dilute sulfuric acid at 5° using a lead cathode (yields 63-76%) [1120]. 

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