An investigation of infrared spectral features related to the presence of lithium in micas, East Kemptville tin deposit, Nova Scotia

Abstract

Lithium is an important commodity in the rapidly growing rechargeable battery industry and it is unclear whether future Li-demand will outgrow current supply. As such, it is important that the groundwork for exploration be ready in the event of a Li shortage. One possible source is within Li-micas in Sn-greisen deposits. The use of infrared spectroscopy, a cheap and portable technique, for Li-quantification within greisen-style mineralogy was explored. To do this, recreation of the 915 cm[superscript -1] signature, which was found to decrease in intensity as a function of octahedral Li occupancy after treatment of muscovite with molten LiNO[subscript 3] (White et al., 1961) was explored. Recreation of this feature was unsuccessful, which is likely due to a lack of empty octahedral positions to accommodate Li[superscript +] cations pre-treatment. The orientation of samples during analyses, both parallel and perpendicular to mica cleavage was found to have no effect on the wave number position of absorption features. Intensities o individual absorption features were found to vary as a function of sample thickness. In addition to this, the absorption features of 6 mica samples with varying Li concentration were compared. Absorption near 1411 and 2200 cm[superscript -1] were found to be shifted to higher wave numbers in samples with the highest Li, reflecting the replacement of octahedral Al by Li.