Crystal Structure Analysis of Lithium Zirconate Prepared from Local Sand at a various ratio of Li₂ZrO₃ to ZrO₂

Lithium zirconate, li₂zro₃ is a promising candidate anode material for lithium ion battery. due to the abundant of zircon sand as a raw material for lithium zirconate synthesis in indonesia, therefore this research study the preparation of lithium zirconate. the aims are to increase the economic value of the local zircon sand as well as to ensure the functional materials supplyfor developing energy conversion technology. the lithiumzirconate, li₂zro₃ was prepared by solid state reaction with li₂co₃ and zro₂ from zircon sand as starting materials.the produced white powder was then analyzed by xrd to ensure the result by comparing witha standard diffraction. furthermore,the crystal structure was also determined by conducting refinement on the diffraction data. the refinement proceed well with le bail method in a rietica software. the crystal structure is monoclinic with a space group of c21/c1. the cell parameters are a= 5.4304å, b= 9.0240å, and c= 5.4207å. the structure compatibility is shown by the low rp and rwp, i.e 6.78% and 7.17%, respectively. this research also found that the prepared lithium zirconate is in a single phase without any impurities presence. the fourier plot of electron mapping shows a significant change on electron map when the material converted from zro₂ to li₂zro₃. the ftir spectra shows differences in the adsorption peaks of zro₂ and li₂zro₃. meanwhile, the particle size of li₂zro₃ particles is around 1.1 – 2.1 µm.