Instead of
placing highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) or crushed Graphite in liquid
Lithium, a stacking method is applied. Polycrystalline graphite plates of a thickness
of 1–2 mm and Li granules were stacked in a steel crucible according to Fig. 2a after
degassing the graphite at 400 C for 2 h. The components were arranged with the
molar ratio Li:C = 1:5 and annealed at 330 C for 24 h. Due to the excess of Li, the
resulting plates of LiC6 are coated with a thin film of Li that was removed mechanically.
In Fig. 2b the XRD pattern of the resulting sample of LiC6 is shown.