The element content determination of LiCoxNiyMnzO2 by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric method

Abstract

The contents of Ni, Co, Mn and Li in LiCoxNiyMnzO2 cathode material were determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method. The samples were dissolved in aqua regia. The analytical spectral line for Ni, Co, Mn and Li was 232.0, 237.8, 279.4 and 610.3nm, respectively. The concentration of each element was linearly related to the emission intensity in the chosen range of concentration. The detection limit was 0.0005% to 0.001% while the addition standard recovery was 99%~101%. The ICP-AES method was applied to the element content determination of standard samples. The results were essentially in agreement with the certified values and the relative standard deviation (n=6) was between 0.85% and1.03%. Introduction Lithium ion battery has been widely used in portable electronic products, and it’s also considered to be the most promising power source in the near future for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles . At present, the scientists are committed to the development of such cathode materials with high capacity, low cost and high safety . LiCoxNiyMnzO2 was developed from LiCoO2 by using Ni and Mn to replace part of Co in the original cobalt acid lithium layered structure. As the amount of cobalt reduced, the cost was reduced and the energy density was improved. LiCoxNiyMnzO2 also has good thermal stability and wide charge and discharge voltage which makes it to be the ideal cathode material to fulfill the requirement of power battery . Its electrochemical properties are determined by the content ratio of Ni, Co, Mn in LiCoxNiyMnzO2. The inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) method was widely applied to element content determination due to its low detection limit, wide dynamic range, high accuracy and little matrix effect . In this paper, the contents of Ni, Co, Mn and Li in LiCoxNiyMnzO2 were determined by ICP-AES method. The samples were dissolved in aqua regia. The selection spectrometry of Ni, Co, Mn and Li was 232.0, 237.8, 279.4 and 610.3nm, respectively. It turns out that the ICP-AES detection method of LiCoxNiyMnzO2 is simple, fast and accurate.