Preparation of lithium carbonate by thermal decomposition in a rotating packed bed reactor

With the increasing demand for lithium battery, the use amount of Li 2 CO 3 has substantially increased, especially for the well-dispersed fine particles. However, preparing and reducing the size of battery-grade Li 2 CO 3 by the thermal decomposition method is still a challenge. In this work, a rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor was applied to prepare well-dispersed fine Li 2 CO 3 particles by thermal decomposition of LiHCO 3 . Selection of dispersants in the thermal decomposition process was carried out as the first step and then ethanol was selected as the optimal dispersant, compared with polyethylene glycol (PEG) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). Effects of the volume fraction of dispersant, rotational speed, liquid flow rate, steam mass flow rate, and preheating temperature on the particle size were investigated. The median particle size ( d 50 ) of Li 2 CO 3 product obtained in this study can meet the requirement of Chinese National Nonferrous Metal Industry Standard of battery-grade Li 2 CO 3 (YS/T582-2013) by adjusting the operation parameters appropriately, which displays the potential and considerable application prospects.