Enamels, Glass and Ceramics

The use of lithium carbonate in the enamel, ceramic and glass industry has become a major industrial application. Lithium oxide (Li2O) is formed in the glass. It is beneficial to the melting process since it decreases the melting point, viscosity, and thermal expansion. Additional benefits include improvement of the chemical durability, density and workability. One well-known application is the manufacture of glass ceramic cooking ranges. Lithium oxide shows the same properties in enamels and ceramics. Optical glass ceramics for high performance telescopes require extremely low linear thermal expansion. Once again lithium carbonate finds application in this field. A famous example is the manufacture of the very large telescope (VLT) which has been manufactured in Germany. In addition to the carbonate other lithium salts such as chloride, fluoride, phosphate, silicate or sulfates are also used in specific applications.