Lithium isotope effect accompanying electrochemical insertion of lithium into liquid gallium

Abstract

Lithium was electrochemically inserted from a 1: 2 (v/v) mixed solution of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methylethyl carbonate (MEC) containing 1M LiClO4 into liquid gallium to observe lithium isotope effects accompanying the insertion. It was observed that the lighter isotope 6Li was preferentially fractionated into liquid gallium with the single-stage lithium isotope separation factors S, ranging from 1.005 to 1.031 at 50°C and 1.003 to 1.024 at 25°C. The lithium isotope effects estimated by molecular orbital calculations at the B3LYP/6-311G(d) level of theory agreed qualitatively with those of the experiments, but the quantitative agreement of the two was not satisfactory. © 2010 Verlag der Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, Tübingen.