Intercalation of CoCl2 into graphite: Mixing method vs molten salt method

The intercalation of CoCl2 into graphite flakes from CoCl2-NaCl molten salts has been studied. The intercalation compounds were compared with those obtained by the classical mixing method using CoCl2 powder and graphite. The reaction products were investigated by XRD and neutron activation analysis. In both intercalation methods, chlorine gas was shown to be necessary to initiate the intercalation reaction. The intercalation occurred much faster when the molten-salts method was used. The composition of the NaCl-CoCl2 molten salt had a strong influence on the stage structure of the products as well as on the number and the size of the intercalated islands. The stage and the composition of the materials prepared by the molten-salt method did not change with the reaction time. The contrary was found for the mixing method. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.