TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - INORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The mixture in heating step is carried out at an ambient pressure and under agitation. The calcining step is performed at a temperature of greater than or equal to 600 degrees C. The supernatant is collected and reused. Preferred Components: The metal ions and silicon are present in equimolar proportion. The crystalline lithium orthosilicate compound comprises nanoparticles having dimensions of less than 20 nm.    TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Components: The high boiling alcohol comprises one or more alcohols, where at least one of the alcohols has a boiling point of greater than or equal to 200 degrees C, and is oleyl alcohol, 1-decanol, 1-dodecanol, and 1-hexadecanol. EXAMPLE - Oleyl alcohol (100 ml) was placed into a round-bottom flask (250 ml). The container was then degassed and charged with nitrogen. Lithium hydroxide (1.348 g), manganese(II) acetate tetrahydrate (5.515 g), and silicon tetraethoxide (4.69 g) were placed in the reaction flask. The above reaction mixture was stirred continuously using a magnetic bar. The temperature of the mixture was raised gradually over 90 minutes until a final temperature of 340 degrees C was reached and held constant for 8 hours. After overnight cooling, the flask was warmed with stirring to 50-60 degrees C to disperse the precipitate. The suspension of the reaction product was spun at 9.5 kilo/revolutions per minute (rpm) for 10 minutes. The supernatant was decanted and then degassed while adding toluene to the tubes to wash the solid and the material was centrifuged. A second and third wash with acetone was performed and the supernatant was poured off. The damp solid was transferred to a vial, placed in a tube furnace and heated to 85 degrees C under high vacuum for 30 minutes, and then transferred to a sealed vacuum desiccator overnight. The sample was heated and then temperature was increased linearly from near room temperature over a 3 hour period to reach 750 degrees C, and then held at 750 degrees C for 2 hours. Cool down was also linear and over a period of 2 hours and worked up to obtain lithium orthosilicate compound with yield of greater than 75%.