<p><strong>Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have transformed energy storage technology, driving innovations for products we use in everyday life such as smartphones and even electric vehicles. But what makes these batteries so efficient? A key component is the electrolyte solution, a complex mix that’s crucial for battery performance. GC-MS or gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is an essential tool in analyzing these electrolyte mixtures and the development of increased efficiency and longer-lasting batteries.</strong></p><figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:1024/551;" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Electrifying_Insights_How_GC_MS_is_Powering_Lithium_Ion_Battery_Analysis_29d144ea28.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: Electrifying Insights: How GC-MS is Powering Lithium-Ion Battery Analysis." srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Electrifying_Insights_How_GC_MS_is_Powering_Lithium_Ion_Battery_Analysis_29d144ea28.jpg 245w," sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="551"></figure><h4><strong>Why Analyze Electrolytes?</strong></h4><p><strong>Electrolyte solutions are the essence of lithium-ion batteries, impacting:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Performance</strong>: The right mix ensures faster charging and longer battery life.</li><li><strong>Safety</strong>: Accurate composition prevents overheating and potential hazards.</li><li><strong>Lifespan</strong>: Understanding degradation helps design components that last longer.</li></ul><p>Getting the electrolyte mix right is vital for efficient, safe, and durable batteries.</p><p><strong>However, analyzing electrolytes is complex and comes with a number of challenges:</strong></p><ol><li><strong>Complex Mixture</strong>: Electrolytes consist of various organic solvents, additives, and degradation products. This complexity requires sophisticated technology to separate and identify components.</li><li><strong>Heat Sensitivity</strong>: Components like LiPF6 can degrade at high temperatures, creating new compounds that complicate analysis.</li><li><strong>Trace Additives</strong>: Some additives are present in low concentrations but play a critical role in battery performance. Detecting these components demands highly sensitive methods.</li><li><strong>Degradation Products</strong>: Battery cycling produces byproducts that can interfere with the main components. It’s like trying to find a book in a disorganized library.</li></ol><p><strong>This is where GC-MS becomes an essential analytical tool. This powerful technique provides a detailed look into the composition of LIB electrolytes. The analysis follows a number of steps:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Sample Prep</strong>: LIB electrolyte samples are diluted in dichloromethane and centrifuged to remove interfering salts.</li><li><strong>GC Separation</strong>: Samples are run through a gas chromatograph which uses a programmed temperature ramp ensures all components are separated within a 23-minute window.</li><li><strong>MS detection</strong>: After separation, the mass spectrometer operating in full scan and selected ion monitoring (SIM) provides detailed qualitative and quantitative data.</li></ul><p>Figure 1 shows the difference in selectivity between full scan and SIM mode. Vinylene carbonate is not detected in full scan at a 1 to 500 dilution due to the lack of selectivity and interference in full scan acquisition. However, by using SIM the ions of interest are isolated in the quadrupole increasing selectivity and allowing vinylene carbonate to be quantified at a low level.</p><figure class="image"><img style="aspect-ratio:881/694;" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Electrifying_Insights_How_GC_MS_is_Powering_Lithium_Ion_Battery_Analysis_Figure_1_Full_scan_and_SIM_acquisition_of_vinylene_carbonate_in_cycled_LIB_electrolyte_at_1_500_dilution_6803793369.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: Figure 1. Full scan and SIM acquisition of vinylene carbonate in cycled LIB electrolyte at 1:500 dilution." srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_Electrifying_Insights_How_GC_MS_is_Powering_Lithium_Ion_Battery_Analysis_Figure_1_Full_scan_and_SIM_acquisition_of_vinylene_carbonate_in_cycled_LIB_electrolyte_at_1_500_dilution_6803793369.jpg 198w," sizes="100vw" width="881" height="694"></figure><p><strong>GC-MS brings several advantages to electrolyte analysis:</strong></p><ul><li><strong>Precise Separation</strong>: Achieves excellent separation of multiple components, ensuring accurate readings without co-elution issues.</li><li><strong>High Sensitivity</strong>: Detects even trace amounts of additives—down to 0.021 mg/L.</li><li><strong>Broad Range</strong>: Handles a wide concentration range, analyzing both major and minor components in one go.</li><li><strong>Degradation Insights</strong>: Reveals compositional shifts in cycled electrolytes, providing clues about the aging process of batteries.</li></ul><div><div><h4><strong>Why this analysis is important?</strong></h4><p>Understanding the detailed composition and changes in LIB electrolytes is crucial. It helps researchers and manufacturers fine-tune battery designs for enhanced performance, safety, and durability. While the analysis can be complex, the insights gained are invaluable.</p><p>So next time you charge your device remember the sophisticated science behind that battery. Tools like GC-MS are enabling battery technological advances to be made, ensuring the future of battery technology.</p><blockquote><p>For full details on this analysis<a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://gcms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/an_001124_gc_ms_isq_7610_li_battery_electrolyte_an001124_na_en_4df8612386/an-001124-gc-ms-isq-7610-li-battery-electrolyte-an001124-na-en.pdf"><strong>&nbsp;</strong></a><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="read the full application note. - open in a new tab" data-uw-rm-ext-link="" uw-rm-external-link-id="https://assets.thermofisher.com/tfs-assets/cmd/application-notes/an-001124-gc-ms-isq-7610-li-battery-electrolyte-an001124-na-en.pdf$readthefullapplicationnote."><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://gcms.labrulez.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/an_001124_gc_ms_isq_7610_li_battery_electrolyte_an001124_na_en_4df8612386/an-001124-gc-ms-isq-7610-li-battery-electrolyte-an001124-na-en.pdf"><strong>read the full application note.</strong></a></a> For further details on how GC-MS can power your analysis, <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thermofisher.com/content/lifetech/global/en/home/industrial/mass-spectrometry/gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry-gc-ms/gc-ms-systems/single-quadrupole-gc-ms.html"><strong>visit our website.</strong></a></p><h5><strong>Visit us on </strong><a target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener" aria-label="LinkedIn: - open in a new tab" data-uw-rm-ext-link="" uw-rm-external-link-id="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/72003132/admin/dashboard/$linkedin:"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/72003132/admin/dashboard/"><strong>LinkedIn:</strong></a></a><strong> </strong>#LithiumIonBatteries #GCMS #BatteryMaterialAnalysis</h5><section><h4 data-uw-rm-heading="level" role="heading" aria-level="2"><strong>Adam Ladak</strong></h4><div itemprop="description">Adam Ladak is the global product marketing manager for GC quadrupole mass spectrometry at Thermo Fisher, based in the UK. He started his career working in a contracting testing lab analyzing sports supplements and horse feed for prohibited substances. He has over 20 years of experience in the analytical testing industry and has worked for leading instrument manufacturers in various roles from an application specialist to a global marketing role focused on food and environmental testing. Adam is passionate about utilizing our GCMS instrumentation to meet the customer needs and solve real world problems.</div></section></blockquote></div></div>

Electrifying Insights: How GC-MS is Powering Lithium-Ion Battery Analysis

Ionic liquid coating for stir bar sorptive extraction and its application for extraction and nontargeted screening analysis via TD-GC–Orbitrap-HRMS of pollutants in river water

<p><strong>It’s been 10 years! Yes, in 2015 “gas chromatography” met “Orbitrap mass spectrometry” for the first time with the launch of the Thermo Scientific Q Exactive GC-MS/MS at ASMS (in St. Louis, Missouri). Over that decade of discovery, many scientists have delved into the world of volatiles analysis (yes, and semi-volatiles) using high-resolution accurate mass with Orbitrap technology. From POPs to PFAS, metabolites to microplastics, in samples ranging from meteorites to mackerel, scientists have made discoveries that have advanced our understanding of this “volatile” world.</strong></p><p>In this new blog series, <strong>GC Orbitrap Guru Series</strong>, I am catching up with some of the scientists, analysts and people behind the technology to capture their science stories and experiences with GC Orbitrap mass spectrometry.</p><p>First up is <strong>Dr Kerstin Krätschmer</strong>, Project leader NRL POPs, researcher organic contaminants group at Wageningen Food Safety Research in the Netherlands.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Name: </strong>Dr. Kerstin Krätschmer</p><p><strong>Organisation:</strong> Wageningen Food Safety Research</p><p><strong>Job title:</strong> Project leader NRL POPs, Researcher Organic Contaminants</p><p><strong>Top Applications: </strong>Food safety, chlorinated paraffins, dioxin, PFAS</p><p><strong>Years with GC Orbitrap: </strong>9</p><p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_Guru_Series_Dr_Kerstin_Kraetschmer_0f5a261914.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: GC Orbitrap Guru Series - Dr. Kerstin Krätschmer" srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_Guru_Series_Dr_Kerstin_Kraetschmer_0f5a261914.jpg 128w," sizes="100vw" width="459" height="560"></p></blockquote><h4><strong>What did you study and where?</strong></h4><p>I studied food chemistry at Wuppertal University, which is known as Germany’s greenest city (I said you would learn something!). This was followed by legal training to gain state certification as a food chemist. My PhD focused on the analysis of polychlorinated alkanes, back then still known as chlorinated paraffins, at the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL for POPs) in Freiburg, in cooperation with the University of Hohenheim (Stuttgart, Germany).</p><h4><strong>What was your first scientific job? (You actually got paid to do science?)</strong></h4><p>Haha, that was actually my PhD position – first with half pay, then later a full job as a lab manager position but did not involve much managing beyond my own lab work for quite a while. Though I did like working at the EURL POPs for the chance to network across all EU and associated states, and even the fiddly bits where you have to figure out why some customs department won’t let the proficiency test sample pass through! &nbsp;To balance the regulatory and networking activities, the aspect I liked most about this role was that there were plenty of opportunities for testing new instruments and methods.</p><p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_Guru_Series_Dr_Kerstin_Kraetschmer_in_the_lab_54e03d8d4b.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: GC Orbitrap Guru Series - Dr. Kerstin Krätschmer" srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_Guru_Series_Dr_Kerstin_Kraetschmer_in_the_lab_54e03d8d4b.jpg 245w," sizes="100vw" width="1024" height="231"></p><h4><strong>What was the first mass spectrometer technology that you used?</strong></h4><p>Like most scientists I know, it was at university, we had a lab course module on instrumental analysis, where they let us, students, try out a wide range of technologies, though only under strict supervision. The first MS that I really got into on my own was the Q Exactive GC-MS/MS &nbsp;that I used for my PhD work. Keeping with the university tradition, and after almost five years of ups and downs, I named her Betty (Don’t ask why). 🙂</p><h4><strong>When did you first use GC Orbitrap MS and for what application?</strong></h4><p>That must have been 2016/2017, and then for setting up my method for polychlorinated alkane analysis, because those analytes are so complex, the full scan high-resolution data is the only way to go with them for academic purposes.</p><h4><strong>Why did you need GC Orbitrap for polychlorinated alkanes?</strong></h4><p>At some point, we calculated that the minimum needed mass resolution to avoid interferences was way beyond 20,000 resolving power; if you also wanted to look at other contaminants in the same sample, the resolution had to be even higher. The 120,000 resolving power available on the Q Exactive GC-MS/MS provided us with that analytical power that enabled us to see what otherwise would have been impossible.</p><h4><strong>What surprised you most about GC Orbitrap?</strong></h4><p>I was really surprised when I first saw the physical size of the Orbitrap part and realised just how tiny the actual Orbitrap is! You see this large box hiding the MS part of the instrument and automatically think this must all be this super-fancy detector, but then it fits comfortably into the palm of your hand. Mind-blowing!</p><p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_946e0893e7.jpg" alt="Thermo Fisher Scientific: GC Orbitrap" srcset="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/thumbnail_Thermo_Fisher_Scientific_GC_Orbitrap_946e0893e7.jpg 245w," sizes="100vw" width="967" height="617"></p><h4><strong>How does GC Orbitrap help answer your scientific questions? What would you like to see improved? (be honest)</strong></h4><p>Today, with the ever-growing list of contaminants to be monitored and analyzed in food samples, we try to combine methods as much as possible. One such methods runs on the GC-Orbitrap, for two reasons: we can monitor many more target compounds than targeted methods such as GC-MS/MS, thanks to full scan mode, and ddMS² allows us to add some non-target screening on top, in case we’ve missed some new and upcoming contaminant that is not yet on our radar! Of course, all that doesn’t come without a pay-off: the more broadly you try to work, the less sensitive you are. So, a bit higher ionization efficiency or any other modification allowing for an increase in sensitivity without sacrificing too much mass resolution would be on my wish list.</p><h4><strong>And finally…What is the best conference venue you have been to and why?&nbsp;</strong></h4><p>Oh, there were so many! I think I’ll have to go with Vancouver, BC, Canada, though. The 2017 Dioxin conference in Vancouver was my first international (and, indeed, trans-Atlantic!) conference as a presenter, and it was the 250th anniversary of Canada that year! British Columbia is a culturally rich area with unbelievable variety in nature as soon as you leave the cities, but the vibrancy of the people there was what made the stay unique.</p><p>That’s a wrap (or blog actually). We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to chat with Kerstin for my first subject of this series, GC Orbitrap Guru. I have to admit that I share your “wow” moment on both Vancouver and the physical size of the Orbitrap! I am on the hunt for other GC Orbitrap people, so if you would like to tell your story or just to share your GC Orbitrap stories with us, please reach out to me at dominic.roberts@thermofisher.com</p><blockquote><p><strong>Thirsty for more? Please take a look at the </strong><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.thermofisher.com/cz/en/home/industrial/mass-spectrometry/gas-chromatography-mass-spectrometry-gc-ms/gc-ms-systems/high-resolution-accurate-mass-gc-ms.html?erpType=Global_E1"><strong>Thermo Scientific Orbitrap Exploris GC</strong></a></p></blockquote>

GC Orbitrap Guru Series: Dr. Kerstin Krätschmer

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