Researchers and manufacturers use lithium nitrate in the preparation of many lithium compounds, most notably lithium nickel oxide (LiNiO
2)
[1] and lithium manganese oxide (LiMn
2O
4).
[2] One common strategy for synthesizing these lithium metal oxides involves a high-temperature reaction of lithium nitrate with a metal carbonate, like nickel carbonate, or with a metal oxide, like manganese oxide. At temperatures above 650 °C, lithium nitrate evolves oxygen gas and nitrogen dioxide gas and decomposes through a complex process into lithium oxide, which reacts with the metal precursors to form the tertiary or quaternary lithium metal oxides. Researchers have used this technique to prepare exciting new materials, like LiAl
0.25Ni
0.75O
2[3] as a cathode material in lithium-ion batteries and LiGa
5O
8 [4] as a phosphor for optical information storage.
Because lithium nitrate is soluble in water, researchers also use lithium nitrate in the synthesis of lithium compounds using a host of solution-based chemistries. For example, microwave-induced combustion using solutions of lithium nitrate has yielded olivine-type lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO
4), lithium cobalt oxide (LiCoO
2), and lithium titanium oxides (ex. Li
4Ti
5O
12 and Li
2TiO
3).
[5] Hydrothermal processing, sol-gel processing, spray pyrolysis,
co-precipitation pre-processing, and Li emulsion-drying methods have all used lithium nitrate as a reactant to form lithium metal oxides. These techniques can yield controlled particle size, grain size, crystallinity, or facilitate the introduction of dopants for engineering the properties of the products, often explored for next-generation lithium-ion batteries.
Our battery grade lithium nitrate with ≥99.9% trace metals purity and low chloride and sulfate impurities, is designed as a precursor for cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries.