Chemicals, lithium

Study of the Application of Lithium Chemicals to Air Regeneration Techniques in Manned, Sealed Environments , Foote Mineral Co Tech Documentary Rept AMRL-64-1 (Feb 1964), AD 435815 7) P.R. Gustafson R.R. Miller,... 

The magnitude of the chemical shift anisotropy depends on the bonding situation and the nucleus gyromagnetic ratio. Since the bonds formed by lithium in organolithium compounds or other lithiated systems are mainly ionic, the anisotropy of the lithium chemical shift is generally small. It is more pronounced for Li than for Li. Li spectra are dominated by the quadrupolar effect and the CSA contribution to the Li lineshape is often negligible. Exceptions are compounds with poly-hapto bound lithium, such as... 

These design features eliminate almost all pathways to a serious accident, but elimination of the lithium chemical energy would be even better. Hence, the ideal DT fusion reactor would utilize lithium that is combined with other elements to produce a fluid that is not reactive with air or water, but still retains the low density and high heat capacity of pure lithium. Various lead-lithium solutions have been considered, but none fully satisfy these criteria. 

In 2008, the world s largest consumer of lithium minerals and compounds was the United States. The major producer of lithium chemicals worldwide was Chile. Other countries involved in lithium production included Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Portugal, the United States, and Zimbabwe. Specific information on U.S. production was not released in order to preserve trade secrets. 

Lithium ion conductors are very much desired in commercial applications because of the relatively high open circuit voltages (up to 4 V) that can be achieved in electrochemical devices employing lithium-based anodes with high chemical activities (or chemical potentials). Many of the polycrystalline lithium-based solid electrolytes, that have been studied to date have ionic resistivities at 300°C in the range between 20 and 200 fl cm. While thin-film applications for these materials are possible, the biggest drawback associated with lithium ion conductors is their chemical and electrochemical instability over time at temperatures of interest in environments very high in lithium chemical activity. 

Courtesy American Lithium Chemicals Figure 3. Lithium recovery kiln... 

The mass equivalent factors between lithium raw materials and chemicals are provided at the beginning of the description of the industrial processes used to prepare lithium chemicals. This will assist the reader in converting (calculating) the lithium content of each product easily. 

Applications of lithium chemicals. According to Joyce Ober in the 1997 annual report presented by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the main uses of lithium are, in order of importance ... 

The open-circuit voltage Voc of such a lithium cell is given by the difference in the lithium chemical potential between the cathode (/tc) and the anode (ju-a) as... 

The intercalation cathode Li MyXz (X = anion) should have a low lithium chemical potential, and the intercalation anode should have a high lithium chemical potential to maximize the cell voltage. This implies that the transition metal ion should have a high oxidation slate in the cathode and a low oxidation state in the anode. The chemical potential or redox energies of the cathode and anode could also be tuned by counter cations as illustrated by an increase in voltage on going from an oxide to a polyanion cathode with the same oxidation state for the transition metal ions. 

Figure 1. Chart of lithium chemical shifts, (A) salt solutions and (B) organic compounds/ " 200-203)...

In 1960 the industry s over-capacity only allowed operation at about 20% of capacity, and Maywood ceased the production of lithium compounds. LCA closed their Minneapolis plant in 1959 (and canceled their long-term ore contract with Quebec Lithium), while American Potash Chemical Co. closed their Texas plant in 1963. American Potash s Searles Lake lithium operation had started in 1951 and closed in 1978. Quebec Lithium in turn started producing lithium chemicals, but closed their plant in 1965. The production of ore from South Dakota stopped in 1969, and sanctions against Southern Rhodesia (still one of the world s major suppliers) curtailed their ore imports from 1965-1980. Foote s Clayton Valley brine operation commenced in 1966, and LCA started mining spodumene in North Carolina in 1968. Foote s Salar de Atacama operation started in 1984, while SQM s started at the Salar de Atacama, and FMC s (formerly LCA) at the Salar de Hombre Muerto in 1997. Both of the North Carolina mines closed after their brine operations had been well established, and FMC essentially closed their Hombre Muerto plant in 1998 because of SQM s greatly reduced lithium carbonate pricing. 

The recovery of lithium from spodumene ore was discontinued by Foote in 1984 (1986, USGS, 2000) and the mine and plant placed in a stand-by condition. It was officially closed in 1991 and the mine and plant dismantled in 1994 (USGS, 1997). However, the Kings Mountain conversion plant (converting lithium hydroxide to other lithium products) continued as a major processor of Clayton Valley and Salar de Atacama lithium carbonate into other lithium chemicals and lithium metal. Butyl lithium was produced at their New Johnsonville, Tennessee and Taiwan plants, and many other lithium chemicals were made at their parent company, Chemetall GmbH s plant at Langelsheim, Germany. 

The processing of ore was discontinued in 1998, following a 3 year 18 million expansion to 36 million Ib/yr LCE in 1981, but the Bessemer City plant adjacent to the mine remained as FMC s major production facility for other lithium chemicals, including the metal and organo-lithium compounds. Some lithium chemicals are... 

A very wide variety of lithium chemicals are sold commercially, as illustrated by Chemetall s Product Line in 2002 listing 33 inorganic lithium chemicals and 36 organic lithium compounds, with others available upon request. Their major production facility for these chemicals is in Langelsheim, Germany (Fig. 1.90), and many of the inorganic chemicals are produced from hthium carbonate as the initial... 

Figure 1.90 Aerial view of Chemetall s Langelsheim, Germany Lithium Chemicals Plant (courtesy of ChemetaU GmbH).

C. Sales of various lithium chemicals, million pounds of lithium carbonate equivalents ... 

Lloyd, J. E. (1981). Lithium Chemicals. Speciality Inorg. Chem. 40, 98-122. 

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