Thermodynamic modeling of aqueous lithium salt solutions with association electrolyte nonrandom two-liquid activity coefficient model

Abstract

The high charge density of lithium ion and the resulting strong association phenomena make thermodynamic modeling of aqueous lithium electrolyte solutions extremely challenging. In this study, the association electrolyte nonrandom two-liquid activity coefficient model of Lin et al. (AIChE J. 2022, 68(2), e17422) is utilized to correlate and predict thermodynamic properties and solubility behavior of aqueous single electrolyte solutions of LiCl, LiBr, LiI, and LiNO3, and their mixed electrolyte solutions. Capturing self-association of water, cross-association of ion and water for hydration, and cross-association of cation and anion for ion-pairing, the association model accurately represents the literature experimental data up to saturation concentrations and at the temperature ranging from 263 K to 523 K. This study further investigated the effect of anions of the lithium salts, and re-confirmed that the order of solution non-ideality as LiI > LiBr > LiCl > LiNO3 because the anions with stronger association strengths are more likely to form ion pairs and thus lower the mean ionic activity coefficients.