Electrolytes - Quality at Point of Use

Lithium ion Batteries commercially available since the early nineties in Japan are going to be more and more important for portable electronic devices and even EV applications. Today several companies around the world are working hard to join to market for Lithium secondary batteries. Based on the growing interest for commercial use of batteries also the materials have to be reviewed in order to meet large scale production needs. The requirements especially for electrolytes for lithium batteries are extremely high. The solvents and the lithium salts should be of highest purity. So the supply of these chemicals including packaging, transportation and storage but also the handling in production are critical items in this field. Frolic impurities are very critical for LiPF6 based electrolytes. The influence of water is tremendous. But also the other protic impurities like alcoholes are playing an Important role for the electrolyte quality. The reaction of these species with LiPF6 leads to formation of HF which further reacts with cathode materials (spinel) and anode. To understand the role of the protic impurities more clearly the electrolyte was doped with such compounds and was analyzed for protic impurities and HF. These results which directly show the relation between impurities and quality will be presented and discussed. In addition several investigations on different packaging materials as well as methods to analyze and handle the sensititive material will be addressed. These questions which are only partly discussed in literature so far and never been investigated systematically cover some of the key parameters for understanding of the battery chemicals. This investigation and understanding however is of major importance for scientist and engineers in the field of Lithium ion and Lithium polymer batteries.