Patent ID: 6872375

Claim:
A method of making a hexammine cobaltic salt, the method comprising: (a) providing a reaction vessel containing an aqueous solution of at least one ammonia source selected from the group consisting of ammonium hydroxide, ammonia-containing gas and combinations thereof; (b) introducing a solution of Co(X) 2 and a solution of NH 4 X, wherein X is at least one selected from the group consisting of chloride, bromide, perchlorate, and nitrate, into the reaction vessel whereby the introduced cobalt encounters an excess amount of ammonia preventing cobalt complex formation and to form reaction vessel contents comprising a first product precursor; (c) introducing an oxygen-containing gaseous oxidizer to the reaction vessel contents of (b) to form an at least partially oxidized second product precursor; (d) heating the at least partially oxidized second product precursor to form a third product precursor; (e) adding a surface active catalyst to the third product precursor; (f) continue introducing an oxygen-containing gaseous oxidizer to the catalyst-containing reaction mixture of (e) while maintaining the temperature at a temperature selected to result in product formation of a desired particle size; and (g) cooling the mixture from (f) and recovering the hexammine cobaltic salt therefrom as an admixture with the surface active catalyst.