Fabrication of Li2TiO3 pebbles with small grain size via hydrothermal and improved dry-rolling methods

Lithium titanate (Li2TiO3) ceramic pebbles were successfully fabricated by using hydrothermal and improved dry-rolling method. In the present work, ultra-fine Li2TiO3 powder of high reactivity was prepared via hydrothermal reaction, using anatase titania and lithium hydroxide as raw materials. The as-synthesized Li2TiO3 powder exhibits an average crystalline size as small as 100 nm. Improved dry-rolling method was employed to fabricate Li2TiO3 pebbles. The green pebbles can be well-sintered (81% T.D.) at a temperature as low as 850 °C for 3 h. The pebbles have good sphericity (1.08) and narrow diameter distribution (1.0-1.2 mm) with a crush load of 35 N. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations of pebbles showed that the ceramic grain size was below 1 μm and atomic emission spectrometer fitted with inductively coupled plasma (ICP-AES) results confirmed that atomic ratio of Li to Ti in the fabricated pebbles was 1.97.