The Production of Lithium Oxide Microspheres from the Disintegration of a Liquid Jet

Microspheres of lithium hydroxide (LiOH) were produced from in-flight solidification of droplets formed by the disintegration of an acoustically driven, mechanically vibrated cylindrical liquid jet of molten LiOH. The molten material at 470 to 480°C was fed through a 25-gauge (0.0267-cm bore diameter) nozzle, interiorly electroplated with silver, under ∼27.6-kPa (4-psig) pressure, and at a mechanical vibration frequency of 10 Hz. The resulting jet issued into a 5.5-cm-diam vertical glass drop tube entraining a 94.5 cm³/s (12 ft³/h) argon gas stream at 75°C. The 100-cm-long drop tube was sufficient to allow the droplets of molten LiOH resulting from jet disintegration to solidify in-flight without catastrophic thermal shock, being then collected as solid microspheres. These LiOH microspheres were then vacuum processed to lithium oxide (Li₂O). Preliminary experiments resulted in microspheres with diameters varying from 120 to 185 µim, but with evidence of impurity contamination occurring during the initial stages of the process.