A process for fabrication of Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles with high mechanical properties via non-hydrolytic sol-gel method

Abstract In this paper, the single-phase Li2TiO3 powder was successfully synthesized via non-hydrolytic sol-gel method (NHSG) using anhydrous lithium acetate (LiOAc) as lithium source and tetrabutyl titanate (TBOT) as titanium source. The effects of the temperature and the Li/Ti molar ratio on the synthesis of Li2TiO3 were investigated by XRD. FT-IR and XPS were used to characterize the synthesis mechanism and surface chemistry of Li2TiO3 powder heated at 650 °C for 2 h with 5 °C/min. Furthermore, the Li2TiO3 pebbles were successfully prepared using synthesized powder by indirect wet chemistry method. The results showed that the Li2TiO3 pebbles with diameter of 1.3mm–1.5 mm, crush load of 67 N, sphericity of 0.97, the relative density of 84.9%, the grain size of 2.85 μm and porosity of 19.84% were successfully fabricated when sintering temperature was 1050 °C for 2 h in air. Therefore，the NHSG method could provide a new efficient route for the production of Li2TiO3 ceramic pebbles.