Lithium & Advanced Materials

Battery-grade lithium carbonate is material made for cathode production, usually at least 99.5% Li₂CO₃ with tight limits on sodium, calcium, magnesium, sulphate and other impurities, plus controlled particle size and moisture. Technical grade, around 99%, allows several times more of those impurities and suits glass, ceramics, glazes and lithium salt production. There is no single global standard, so share your cathode specification and we confirm grade and make before quoting.

pCAM, or precursor cathode active material, is the mixed nickel-manganese-cobalt hydroxide that becomes an NMC cathode. Nickel, cobalt and manganese sulphates are dissolved in the target ratio, such as 8:1:1 for NMC811, and co-precipitated with sodium hydroxide and ammonia in a stirred reactor that controls particle size and density. The dried precursor is then mixed with lithium hydroxide or carbonate and calcined. Sulphate purity carries straight through to the cathode.

Lithium tetraborate melts with oxide samples into a homogeneous glass bead, removing the particle size and mineral effects that make pressed-powder XRF less accurate, and its light elements add little to the measured spectrum. Tetraborate suits basic samples rich in calcium, magnesium or iron oxides. It is often blended with lithium metaborate, for example 66:34 for limestone and cement, while metaborate-rich blends dissolve silica-rich samples. Match the flux ratio to your method.

Choose by the form your process needs. Sodium tungstate is water-soluble, so it suits solution chemistry: oxidation catalysts with hydrogen peroxide, corrosion inhibitors and making other tungstates. Tungstic acid is insoluble in water but dissolves in alkalis and ammonia, making it a precursor for ammonium tungstates and catalysts. Tungsten trioxide is the stable oxide that is reduced to tungsten metal powder and used in electrochromic films, DeNOx catalysts and ceramic pigments.