Synthesis of lithium metasilicate powders at low temperature via mechanical milling

The Li ₂SiO ₃ powder has been successfully synthesized at low temperature via mechanical milling process. By using LiOH·H ₂O and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as raw materials, Li ₂SiO ₃ powder with grain size of about 100 nm could be obtained at room temperature (∼20°C) after mechanical milling for 120 h. This nano Li ₂SiO ₃ powder shows excellent thermal stability that no decomposing reaction or phase change would happen even after calcined at 900°C for 4 h. Experiments show that high concentration of the raw materials is helpful to the forming of Li ₂SiO ₃ phase. When the concentration of the raw materials is too low, no Li ₂SiO ₃ phase could be obtained. The investigation also shows that small content of B ₂O ₃ could accelerate the densifying speed of Li ₂SiO ₃ ceramics and decrease the thermal stability of Li ₂SiO ₃ phase.