Mass spectrometric studies of lithium-containing oxides at high temperature

The sublimation and vaporization of various lithium containing oxides have been studied by high temperature mass spectrometry. The installed Knudsen cell apparatus gave some useful information about the vapor species, appearance potentials, partial pressures and heats of reactions involved. The investigated oxides are Li₂O, Li₂O-Al₂O₃, Li₂O-MoO₂ and Li₂O-SiO₂ systems. This paper mainly presents the most recent data for the Li₂O-SiO₂ system. A relationship for the decomposition reaction of ortho-Li₄SiO₄ was deduced. The heat of the reaction was determined by the third law method.The activity of the Li₂O component in the double oxides was estimated from the partial pressures of the vapor species. γ-LiAlO₂ and meta-Li₂SiO₃ showed fairly low activities in comparison with Li₂O oxide. The activity coefficients decreased with the Li₂O mole fraction in the lithium compounds.The heats of formation and atomization of LiO and Li₂O gaseous species were determined.