The chemical composition of all materials used in the production of Li-ion batteries is important for battery performance, ageing effects, cycle life and product safety. Therefore, reliable elemental and trace elemental analysis is a must to determine impurities and stoichiometries of the active materials and their changes over charge/discharge cycles. Elemental analysis of battery materials, either compositional or impurity analysis, performed by ICP-OES or ICP-MS, requires adequately digested samples.

This study demonstrates how microwave-assisted acid digestion facilitates subsequent ICP analysis of all types of battery materials, ranging from lithiated metal oxides or phosphates (cathodes), graphite-based material (anodes) to polymer foils (used as separators) and black mass, the powdered mixture of complete end-of-life batteries.