General description

Anhydrous lithium perchlorate is a white-to-colorless crystalline salt. It is hygroscopic and deliquescent and usually stored under inert atmosphere. It is highly soluble in water and soluble in a variety of organic solvents including alcohols, acetone, acetonitrile, ethyl acetate, ethers, carbonates, and other polar organic solvents. Lithium perchlorate is a strong oxidizing agent.
Industrially, lithium perchlorate is manufactured in several ways. Most commonly, it is prepared from sodium perchlorate through a metathesis reaction with lithium chloride or lithium carbonate. Lithium perchlorate can also be prepared by direct electrochemical oxidation of lithium chloride or by reacting lithium carbonate with perchloric acid. The hydrate can be dried either by highly controlled heating or by displacing water with volatile amines, which are removed by drying under vacuum.

Application

The primary application of lithium perchlorate is as an electrolytic salt in lithium-ion batteries. Many of the early, now-famous reports of lithium batteries used lithium perchlorate dissolved in polar organics as the electrolyte and the salt remains popular because of its high solubility, electrochemical stability, and low cost. In the search for solid electrolytes, lithium perchlorate (5-12 wt%) is often added to polyethylene oxide (PEO) and composited with ceramic nanoparticles like LLZO and LATP .
Researchers also use lithium perchlorate as an electrolytic salt in aqueous media when testing electrocatalysts. For example, recent experiments improving the electrochemical reduction of nitrogen over TiO₂ nanoparticles or gold nanoparticles use aqueous lithium perchlorate as the electrolyte.