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Upsilon
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[*] posted on 13-9-2015 at 14:53
Cheap lithium salts?

It seems like every lithium salt I can find online is pretty expensive for a substantial quantity. I imagine that it's because of the hazards and relatively low abundance of lithium, but does anyone know what lithium salt or lithium-containing compound would be the cheapest to buy?
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[*] posted on 13-9-2015 at 15:09


Try lithium carbonate from pottery suppliers, I bought a pound from US Pigment for $9. Just be warned that converting it to other lithium salts uses a ton of acid, I was amazed when I started calculating how much conc. HCl I needed to get 125g of LiCl.



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[*] posted on 13-9-2015 at 16:32


Quote: Originally posted by gdflp  
Try lithium carbonate from pottery suppliers, I bought a pound from US Pigment for $9. Just be warned that converting it to other lithium salts uses a ton of acid, I was amazed when I started calculating how much conc. HCl I needed to get 125g of LiCl.


Holy crap those prices are dirt cheap! So much cheaper than anything I could find on eBay. Is there a reason for this? High shipping cost, low purity...?
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[*] posted on 13-9-2015 at 16:36


Quote: Originally posted by Upsilon  

Holy crap those prices are dirt cheap! So much cheaper than anything I could find on eBay. Is there a reason for this? High shipping cost, low purity...?

Shipping isn't bad in the least, they don't charge handling fees and they ship with the flat-rate priority USPS boxes. As for purity, I've never had an issue. The alkaline earth metal carbonates contain sulfides, so don't acidify them without good ventilation, but otherwise I've never seen any sand or other insoluble matter when I was dissolving the carbonates. Many pottery places can produce COA's upon request, so a quick e-mail might answer your question better than I can.



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