To reach greenhouse gas neutrality, the overall road traffic can make a positive contribution. Data from the German Federal Environment Agency show that approximately 20% (149 megatons) from a total of 762 megatons emitted carbon dioxide equivalents are caused by the road traffic. The majority of European automobile manufacturers have plans to exclusively produce electrically powered cars by 2035. Highly efficient lithium-ion batteries are not only used in electric cars but also in other electric devices like mobile phones, electric tools or energy storage systems.
The German Mineral Resources Agency (DERA) estimates that the global need of lithium will rise to a total of approximately 316,300 t to 558,800 t in 2030. Solid spodumene or concentrated liquid spodumene Li [AlSi2 O6] and brine containing lithium are used to extract lithium carbonate Li2 CO3 and lithium hydroxide LiOH as a precursor material. Depending on the application, a different purity of the lithium material is needed.
Due to its multi-element determination capability, high dynamic linear range, and sensitivity, inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) is ideally suited for the analysis of lithium hydroxide. The application is described in the standard procedures of the ISO technical committee TC333/WG2. This report describes the principle of the analysis of lithium hydroxide, as well as line selection and detection limits with the SPECTRO ARCOS MultiView ICP-OES.