Lithium Isotope Effect Accompanying Electrochemical Insertion of Lithium into Liquid Gallium

Lithium was electrochemically inserted from a 1 : 2 (v/v) mixed solution of ethylene carbonate (EC) and methylethyl carbonate (MEC) containing 1M LiClO 4 into liquid gallium to observe lithium isotope effects accompanying the insertion. It was observed that the lighter isotope 6 Li 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