NO as a Universal Reaction Gas to Overcome Spectral Interference in Determining Metal Impurities in Mg(TFSI) Electrolytes for Rechargeable Magnesium Batteries by Inductively Coupled Plasma Tandem Mass Spectrometry.

A new strategy for the determination of metal impurities in magnesium (Mg(TFSI)) electrolytes for rechargeable magnesium batteries using inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS) was proposed. Mg(TFSI) was dissolved in 1,2-dimethoxyethane (DME), and 13 metal impurity elements were directly determined. Since N has a lower O atom affinity (1.6 eV) than the O atom (5.2 eV), NO was a more effective O atom transfer gas than O. In the MS/MS mode, NO was selected as the reaction gas, and high sensitivities and low limits of detection (LODs) of analytes were obtained by mass shift methods. The accuracy of proposed analytical methods was assessed by the spike recovery experiments and comparative analyses using sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (SF-ICP-MS). LODs were in the range of 0.18-26.6 ng kg, the recoveries were 92.5%-107%, and the relative standard deviation (RSD) was 2.0%-5.3%. No significant difference was observed between the ICP-MS/MS and SF-ICP-MS results at a 95% confidence level. The measurement realized the rapid determination of 13 metal impurity elements in Mg(TFSI) using NO as a reaction gas with high sensitivity, accuracy, and precision. The method was applied for the analysis of Mg(TFSI) products with satisfactory results.