The difference between Lithium Carbonate and Lithium hydroxide as Battery Materials

Lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide are both raw materials for batteries, and lithium carbonate has always been cheaper than lithium hydroxide on the market. What's the difference between these two materials?

First of all, from the point of view of the preparation process, both of them can be extracted from spodumene, the cost is not much different, but if the two convert each other, it will require additional cost and equipment, the performance-to-price ratio is not high.

Lithium carbonate is mainly prepared by sulfuric acid method. Lithium sulfate is obtained by the reaction of sulfuric acid and spodumene. Sodium carbonate is added to lithium sulfate solution and then precipitated and dried to prepare lithium carbonate.

Lithium hydroxide is mainly prepared by alkaline method, that is, it is prepared by the roasting of spodumene and calcium hydroxide, and some of them are prepared by the so-called sodium carbonate pressure method, that is, the solution containing lithium is prepared first, and then lime is added to the solution to prepare lithium hydroxide.

In short, spodumene can be used to prepare lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, but the process route is different, the equipment can not be shared, and there is not much difference in cost. In addition, the cost of preparing lithium hydroxide from salt lake brine is much higher than that of preparing lithium carbonate.

Secondly, in terms of use, high nickel ternary must use lithium hydroxide. NCA and NCM811 must use battery-grade lithium hydroxide, while NCM622 and NCM523 can use either lithium hydroxide or lithium carbonate. Lithium hydroxide is also needed to prepare lithium iron phosphate (LFP) products by hydrothermal method. Generally speaking, products made from lithium hydroxide usually have better performance.