Lithium intercalation into borate xerogel during sol–gel process: synthesis, characterization and their property of lowering the thermal degradation temperature of polystyrene

We prepared lithiated borate (LB) during sol–gel process and found that it could greatly lower the degradation temperature (T_d) of Polystyrene (PS). The lithium insertion process was carried out in the same time as tributyl borate hydrolysis in the water. The crystal structure of LB is identified via X-ray diffraction (XRD). The XRD results show that the particle is boric acid. Raman spectroscopy reveals that intercalation Li⁺ ion can be coordinated with O. The structure of LB xerogel in this experiment is mainly determined by the ratio of ethanol to water, amount of lithium and acid or alkali circumstances during sol–gel process, which in turn determines the lithium reactivity to the degradation of PS. The investigation of polystyrene degradation temperature with LB xerogel indirectly proved the coordination state of Li⁺ in LB xerogel, which was also confirmed by Raman.