Lithium sulfate
chemical compound
Lithium sulfate is a white inorganic salt with the formula Li2SO4. It is the lithium salt of sulfuric acid.
Properties
Physical properties
Lithium sulfate is soluble in water, though it does not follow the usual trend of increasing solubility of most salts with temperature. To the contrary, its solubility in water decreases with increasing temperature, as its dissolution is an exothermic process. This relatively unusual property, also called retrograde solubility, is shared with few inorganic compounds, such as calcium hydroxide (portlandite, an important mineral phase of hydrated cement paste), the calcium sulfates (gypsum, bassanite, and anhydrite) and lanthanoid sulfates whose dissolution reactions are also exothermic. The retrograde solubility is common for gases dissolution in water, but less frequently encountered for the dissolution of solids. Calcium carbonate also exhibits a retrograde solubility, but it also depends on the behavior of CO2 dissolution in the calco-carbonate equilibria.
Lithium sulfate crystals, being piezoelectric, are also used in ultrasound-type non-destructive testing because they are very efficient sound receivers. However, they do suffer in this application because of their water solubility.
Since it has hygroscopic properties, the most common form of lithium sulfate is lithium sulfate monohydrate.
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