The invention relates to a process for the preparation of a vanadium-carbon phosphate composite material, a vanadium-carbon phosphate composite material obtained according to the process, and to the uses of the composite material, especially as a precursor for the synthesis of electrochemically-active materials, electrode or active anode material.

The invention relates to a process for performing a aqueous synthesis of titanium phosphates (TiP) having solely —H2PO4 groups, which process is characterised by the following steps: providing titanium (IV) oxysulphate, TiOSO4, in an aqueous solution or in a powder and H2SO4, substantially without transition divalent metal ions, including cobalt (II) and copper (II), heating of the thus formed aqueous solution to above 50° C., but below 85° C. for at least 30 minutes, providing a controlled amount of H3PO4 to said aqueous solution, to form an aqueous solution containing a molar ratio between TIO2 and P2Os being controlled to about 1:1, not above 1:1.5 and not below 1:0.7, stirring the thus formed aqueous solution for at least 3 hours to form precipitates of titanium phosphate, and allowing ageing of said solution, without stirring, acidic washing of the formed precipitate using HCI or other acids to obtain TiO(OH)(H2PO4)-H2O having solely —H2PO4 ion-exchange chemical groups and allowing said precipitates to dry to a powder product, substituting protons in the powder product TiO(OH)(H2PO4)-H2O to sodium cations by treatment of the latter with solutions of sodium carbonate and allowing the thus formed powder of Na—TiP1 to dry.

The epsilon polymorph of vanadyl phosphate, ε-VOPO.sub.4, made from the solvothermally synthesized H.sub.2VOPO.sub.4, is a high density cathode material for lithium-ion batteries optimized to reversibly intercalate two Li-ions to reach the full theoretical capacity at least 50 cycles with a coulombic efficiency of 98%. This material adopts a stable 3D tunnel structure and can extract two Li-ions per vanadium ion, giving a theoretical capacity of 305 mAh/g, with an upper charge/discharge plateau at around 4.0 V, and one lower at around 2.5 V.

A method for increasing the specific surface area of titanium phosphate plate-shaped particles of this invention includes: obtaining a liquid in a state where a powder containing titanium phosphate plate-shaped particles is dispersed in an aqueous alkaline solution.

A method for manufacturing metal phosphate hydrate nanoparticles wherein metal reactants are selected from metal precursors of transition metals,phosphate precursors are selected from: Trisodium phosphate Na.sub.3PO.sub.4, disodium phosphate Na.sub.2HPO.sub.4, phosphoric acid H.sub.3PO.sub.4 and hypophosphoric acid H.sub.4P.sub.2O.sub.6, wherein said method comprises the following step of a reaction medium comprising at least a metal reactant, a phosphate precursor and a solvent, is submitted to a solvothermal treatment at a pressure superior to 50 MPa, and at a temperature of from 100 to 350° C.

To provide an unprecedented novel zirconium phosphate. A zirconium phosphate represented by Formula [1]: Zr(H.sub.a(NH.sub.4).sub.b(PO.sub.4))(HPO.sub.4).nH.sub.2O, wherein Ia/Ib is 1.0 or less where the maximum peak intensity in the range of 2θ=5 to 13° measured by the X-ray diffraction method is denoted by Ia and the maximum peak intensity in the range of 2θ=26 to 28° is denoted by Ib, and in Formula [1], a, b, and c are numbers satisfying a+b=1 and 0≤b<1, and n is a number satisfying 0≤n≤2.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing an ammonium vanadium phosphate of formula (NH.sub.4)(VO.sub.2)(HPO.sub.4). It also relates to a process for preparing a vanadium orthophosphate VPO.sub.4.

Provided are zirconium phosphate particles, obtained by bringing α-zirconium phosphate particles into contact with a basic liquid having a pH of 9 or higher and then further bringing the particles into contact with an acidic liquid having a pH of 6 or lower, or zirconium phosphate particles, in which, after leaving for 10 minutes from putting 10 mg of zirconium phosphate particles and 3 L of air that contains 1,000 ppm of an ammonia gas into a test bag at normal temperature and normal pressure, an ammonia gas reduction rate within the test bag that contains the zirconium phosphate particles is 50% or more.

Provided is a white pigment for cosmetics capable of giving a cosmetic that gives a coating film having less stickiness and higher long-lasting properties. A white pigment for cosmetics of the present invention includes a titanium phosphate powder, the titanium phosphate powder includes crystal particles of titanium phosphate, and a ratio (oil absorption value/specific surface area) of an oil absorption value (ml/100 g) to a specific surface area (m.sup.2/g) of the crystal particles is 2.0 or more.

A compound of Formula 1
Li.sub.1+(4−a)αHf.sub.2−αM.sup.a.sub.α(PO.sub.4−δ).sub.3  (1)
is disclosed, wherein M is at least one cationic element having a valence of a, wherein 0<α≤⅔, 1≤a≤4, and 0≤δ≤0.1. Also described are an electrolyte composition, a separator, a protected positive electrode, a protected negative electrode, and a lithium battery, each including the compound of Formula 1.