Process for producing lithium-containing ferrimagnetic materials

Abstract

Abstract The invention is a process for manufacturing a material, a mass of finely divided particles of which an applied magnetic field can induce to change from a non-magnetized condition, in a sense of exhibiting no net external field, to a magnetized condition, in a sense of exhibiting an external field, which comprises: A. reacting starting materials comprising a salt of an alkali metal, e.g., lithium, sodium or potassium, a salt of a first metal in a divalent state, a salt of iron in a trivalent state, at least one of said salts being a halide, and an epoxy compound in the presence of a solvent selected from the group consisting of lower alkanols and water to obtain a mixture comprising a metal hydroxide-containing and solvent-containing gel; B. drying said gel to remove the majority of the solvent therefrom without significantly altering the distribution of lithium, sodium, or potassium therein to obtain porous particles; and C. heating the porous particles to produce the desired material. The preferred starting materials comprise a salt of lithium, a salt of manganese or magnesium, a salt of iron and propylene oxide, the preferred salts being the halides and, more particularly, the chlorides. The preferred solvent is methanol. Freeze drying is the preferred drying method.

Inventors

• 👤 Robert H. Lindquist

Bibliographic Details