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Abstract
The metal lithium is very important in industry, including lithium batteries. An important source of lithium besides continental brines is granitic pegmatites as in Australia. Lithiophilite is a lithium and manganese phosphate with chemical formula LiMnPO4 and forms a solid solution with triphylite, its Fe analog, and belongs to the triphylite group that includes karenwebberite, natrophilite, and sicklerite. The mineral lithiophilite was characterized by chemical analysis and spectroscopic techniques. The chemical is: Li1.01(Mn0.60, Fe0.41, Mg0.01, Ca0.01)(PO4)0.99 and corresponds to an intermediate member of the triphylite-lithiophilite series, with predominance of the lithiophilite member. The mineral lithiophilite is readily characterized by Raman and infrared spectroscopy.
GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments
The financial and infrastructure support of the Discipline of Nanotechnology and Molecular Science, Science and Engineering Faculty of the Queensland University of Technology is gratefully acknowledged. The Australian Research Council (ARC) is thanked for funding the instrumentation. R. Scholz would like to thank FAPEMIG—Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do estado de Minas Gerais (Grant No. CRA-APQ-03998-10).