Intercalation compounds of aluminum hydroxide

Crystalline aluminum trihydroxides Al(OH)₃ (gibbsite, baverite, and nordstrandite) can serve as layered intercalation matrices in which metal salts are arranged in a specific way. Small cations (lithium, magnesium, and transition metals) lie in the octahedral voids of aluminum hydroxide layers, and water molecules are located between the layers. This localization of small cations gives rise to the molecular sieve effect, where alkaline and alkaline earth cations (Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, etc.), which are large relative to the octahedral voids, are not intercalated into aluminum trihydroxides. In the first step of lithium salt intercalation, the cations, the anions, and the water molecules are incorporated into the interlayer space of aluminum hydroxide with subsequent transition of lithium into the voids of the layer. Translated fromZhurnal Strukturnoi Khimii, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp. 832–848, September-October, 1999.