New kinetic insight into the spontaneous oxidation process of lithium in air by EPMA

Abstract The exposure of metallic lithium to ambient air produces a fast corrosion reaction of the surface that continues to the bulk of the material. This spontaneous process was explored by means of X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Electron Probe Micro-Analysis (EPMA). The combination of these techniques and Monte Carlo simulations allowed observing the formation of a film of lithium hydroxide (LiOH) and studying the growth within the material during the first 300 s. The corrosion is mainly due to the reaction of lithium with water and the diffusion of water through the growing LiOH film is the rate determining step. On the basis of a kinetic analysis we studied the mechanism of reaction and inferred a diffusion coefficient of D = (5.1 ± 0.4) × 10 −12 cm 2 /s in agreement with results from the literature obtained using different techniques.