The production processes of lithium carbonate include salt lake brine extraction process and solid ore extraction process.
1. Salt lake brine extraction process
The salt lake brine extraction lithium process refers to the extraction of lithium carbonate and other lithium salt products from lithium-containing salt lake brine. The salt lake brine extraction technologies currently used in the world mainly include precipitation methods (carbonate precipitation method, aluminate precipitation method, boron magnesium and boron lithium *** precipitation method), calcination leaching method, carbonization method, solvent extraction method, ion Exchange method, etc. Among them, solvent extraction method and ion exchange method have not yet achieved large-scale industrial application.
2. Solid ore extraction process
The extraction of lithium from ore mainly uses solid lithium ores such as spodumene and lepidolite to produce lithium carbonate and other lithium products. The extraction of lithium resources from ores has a long history and the technology is relatively mature. The main production processes include lime sintering and sulfuric acid. Among them, sulfuric acid is the main method currently used.
Uses of lithium carbonate
Lithium carbonate can be used in the manufacture of lithium compounds, enamel, and glass. It is a raw material for preparing lithium compounds and metallic lithium, and can be used as an electrolytic bath additive for aluminum smelting. It is widely used in glass, ceramics, medicine and food industries, and can also be used in synthetic rubber, dyes, semiconductors, military and defense industries, televisions, atomic energy, medicine, catalysts, etc. Used to produce acoustic grade single crystals and optical grade single crystals.
Battery-grade lithium carbonate is mainly used to prepare lithium-ion battery cathode materials such as lithium cobalt oxide, lithium manganate, ternary materials and lithium iron phosphate. High-purity lithium carbonate is mainly used to prepare high-end lithium-ion battery cathode materials and battery-grade lithium fluoride; in terms of optoelectronic information, high-purity lithium carbonate is used to prepare lithium tantalate and lithium niobate; at the same time, high-purity carbonate Lithium is also used in optical special glass, magnetic materials industry, supercapacitor, pharmaceutical industry, etc.