The Cairns Supreme Court heard on Monday the case against a Queensland man accused of murdering his wife by dissolving her in acid, leaving no traces of her except for six teeth found near their home.

Klaus Andreas, 68, had a suspected motive to kill his wife because of a reportedly romantic online affair with a woman in Thailand, the court heard.

The victim, Li Ping Cao, was a native of China.

Andreas was charged with the murder only last month. Five years ago, he had made an emotional appeal for the public to help him find his wife of five years.

A CCTV camera capture of Andreas buying hydrochloric acid on two occasions from Bunnings is among of the evidence being used against him. On one instance, he even used Li's eftpos card to pay for a 60-litre drum of HCl.

In court, however, police admitted they may never be able to determine how Li died because her body can no longer be examined. But authorities are coordinating with Chinese counterparts to confirm whether the six prosthetic teeth found in a storm water drain near the family home belonged to Li.

Andreas' lawyers made a bail application on Monday as they were told the case was unlikely to go to trial until 2013 because of delays in forensic analysis. A decision about the bail application was reserved, to be heard on Tuesday, reported couriermail.com.au.