Direct in Situ Observation of Dynamic Transport for Electrolyte Components by NMR Combined with Electrochemical Measurements

Electrochemical studies provide broad, but not cation- or anion-specific information on the migration of charged ions. However, individual ion diffusion (as a weighted average of charged and neutral ions) can be measured using pulsed-gradient spin-echo (PGSE) NMR. In this paper, the lithium transport in an electrolyte including a lithium salt was measured using electrophoretic NMR (ENMR) with non-blocking electrodes. A propylene carbonate (PC) solution doped with LiN(SO(2)CF(3))(2) (LiTFSI) was inserted in a homemade NMR cell equipped with Li/Li electrodes. The drift migrations of lithium cation ((7)Li), anion ((19)F), and solvent ((1)H) were measured independently under potentials of up to 3.0 V. Greatly enhanced dynamic lithium transport was observed for the first time in the bulk electrolyte under an electric field closely related to real conditions in a rechargeable lithium battery.