Etude par analyse thermique différentielle des tranformations de phases sur l'iodate de lithium

International audience; Lithium iodate (LiIO3) exists at room temperature either as hexagonal (alpha) or tetragonal (beta) crystals. Beta-LiIO3 is stable up to the melting point, whereas alpha-LiIO3 is known to undergo phase transitions. We have studied by differential thermal analysis (DTA) the sequence of phase transitions occurring on powders prepared by different processes. An alpha-LiIO3 powder obtained by grinding a single crystal exhibits the well-known transformations alpha-gamma-beta. A powder obtained by fast evaporation of an aqueous solution transforms directly the alpha to the beta and does not exhibit any intermediate gamma phase. Further, DTA investigations point out that the…