Issue 2, 2020

The determination of trace free acid content in lithium-ion battery electrolytes by coulometric titration in non-aqueous media

Abstract

A new quantitative analysis method was proposed, aiming at resolving the difficulty encountered in accurately determining the trace content of a free acid in lithium-ion battery electrolytes in the past 30 years. The presented method overcame the three restrictive factors of lithium-ion battery electrolytes, namely, poor thermal stability, the formation of hydrofluoric acid with water and difficulty in the accurate determination of trace free acids. The free acid in lithium-ion battery electrolytes was directly titrated with ethoxide ions generated through the electrolyzation of a 0.50 mol L−1 LiCl ethanol solution. The content of free acid was obtained according to the Faraday's law, and the whole determination process could be completed in 5 minutes. The relative standard deviation was below 2.0% when the content of free acid was 2.0 μg and above. The detection limit was 1.0 μg and the recovery rate was 99.5%–102.5%. In this method, free acid determination was not affected by temperature change and the existence of a small amount of water. Thus, this study provides a simple, fast and accurate analytical method with a lower detection limit for free acid in the lithium-ion battery industry and comprehensively improves the quality of lithium-ion battery electrolytes and the performance of lithium-ion battery products.

Graphical abstract: The determination of trace free acid content in lithium-ion battery electrolytes by coulometric titration in non-aqueous media

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
11 Aug 2019
Accepted
31 Oct 2019
First published
07 Nov 2019

Analyst, 2020,145, 582-587

The determination of trace free acid content in lithium-ion battery electrolytes by coulometric titration in non-aqueous media

C. Huang, C. Shen, L. Jin, D. Qu, X. Hu, Y. Lin and H. Cai, Analyst, 2020, 145, 582 DOI: 10.1039/C9AN01539F

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