Mechanochemical Investigations on Lithium-bearing Silicates

Project Leaders

  • Tobias Necke, Benjamin Balke and Hans-Joachim Kleebe

Description

Due to the rising demand of lithium in the increasing battery sector, the lithium industry is focusing currently on hardrock lithium ores, containing alumosilicate minerals like spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) or petalite (LiAlSi4O10). These minerals are known to be poorly soluble at ambient conditions; therefore, these silicates have to be calcined at about 1200 °C in the current extraction process, in order to convert them into the more soluble high-temperature phase β-spodumene.

Mechanochemistry emerged as a promising alternative method for the successful lithium extraction from ores. It is achieved by a combination of mechanical activation in a high-energy ball mill and chemical extraction, thereby avoiding calcination at high temperature.

Accompanying to the mechanochemichal extraction experiments, electron microscopy investigations (SEM and TEM) are employed in order to understand the processes that allow a better Li-extraction such as inducing phase transformations and/or a gradual amorphisation of the sample.

Fig. 1: a) TEM-BF micrographs of spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) before and b) after mechanical activation in a high-energy ball mill. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern shown as inset in b), depicts nanocrystalline spodumene after 60 min of milling.
Fig. 1: a) TEM-BF micrographs of spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) before and b) after mechanical activation in a high-energy ball mill. The selected area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern shown as inset in b), depicts nanocrystalline spodumene after 60 min of milling.
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