Determination of major, minor and trace elements in cobalt-substituted lithium nickelate ceramic powders by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

An analytical method was developed for the determination of three major (Li, Ni and Co) and fourteen minor or trace elements (Al, Ba, Ca, Cu, Cr, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Na, Si, Sr, Ti and V) in LiNi_1−x Co _x O₂ (x = 0.2–0.8) ceramic powders by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Sample dissolution was achieved by 25% nitric acid digestion in a microwave oven. For each element, an analytical line free from spectral interferences was selected. A detailed study of matrix effects over a wide interval of total excitation energy (TEE) lines (1.62–16.50 eV) was performed at near-robust plasma conditions. A remarkable enhancement in atomic lines with TEE <4 eV was noticed, whereas a significant reduction in atomic and ionic lines with TEE >4 eV was observed. The extrapolation to infinite dilution method was successfully used to overcome these nonspectroscopic interferences. Detection limits (3σ) varied from 0.21 mg kg⁻¹ for Sr to 49.7 mg kg⁻¹ for Na. The precision of determination (obtained as the relative standard deviation) was lower than 1% for the major elements Li, Ni and Co and between 0.69 and 10% for minor and trace elements. The accuracy of the method ranged from 91 to 101% for major elements, and from 90 to 110%, or close to this range, for most of the impurities in both of the samples studied.