Lithium sulfide production method

Abstract

A process for producing a low-cost water-reactive sulfide material includes reacting a substantially anhydrous first alkali metal salt, a substantially anhydrous first sulfide compound, and a substantially anhydrous first alkali metal hydrosulfide compound in a substantially anhydrous polar solvent, providing differential solubility for a substantially high solubility second sulfide and a substantially low solubility second alkali metal salt, and forming a mixture of the high solubility second sulfide, a second alkali metal hydrosulfide, and the low solubility second alkali metal salt; removing the low solubility second alkali metal salt to isolate the supernatant including the second sulfide, and separating the polar solvent from the second sulfide and the second alkali metal hydrosulfide followed by heating to produce the second sulfide. The present disclosure provides a scalable process for production of a high purity alkali metal sulfide that is essentially free of undesired contaminants.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.