Clean and Efficient Recovery of Lithium from Al-Li Alloys via Vacuum Fractional Condensation

Abstract

Al-Li alloys are ideal structural materials for the aerospace industry. However, an increasing number of Al-Li alloys have reached the end of their service life and must be recycled. Unfortunately, when vacuum distillation is used to separate Al-Li alloys, metallic lithium is difficult to condense and collect. Therefore, theoretical and experimental research on lithium condensation conditions under vacuum and vacuum distillation and condensation of Al-Li alloy to prepare metallic lithium were carried out. The results show that the optimal condensation temperature range for lithium is between 523 and 560 K. More than 99.5% metallic lithium and more than 99.97% aluminum were obtained from the Al-7.87%wt Li alloy through vacuum distillation condensation. The direct yield of lithium was above 80%. This paper, therefore, provides a new and improved method for the preparation of metallic lithium.