Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (MTD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hi, everyone. Thank you to everyone for joining us. We're going to get started [indiscernible] are discussing water content determination and how you can improve your results and accuracy of your Karl Fisher analysis in lithium-ion battery components. My name is Allison Ryder, and I'm going to be your host for this session. I'm the offering manager for our hydrogel cortical titration reagents within Honeywell's Research Chemicals business. My background is in chemical engineering, and I've had various roles across the organization since first joining Honeywell in 2014. First of all, I would like to thank everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend today's webinar. I see some folks on who is very late at night for. So thank you very much for joining in your evening time. I hope you're all going to find this topic very informative and very valuable. Before we begin, I want to cover a few administrative topics. So at the bottom of your console, you're going to see multiple application widgets that you can use. Some of them are visible on your screen upon launch and to open the rest of them, just click on the widget icon. We're going to be recording today's session and a link will be shared with all registrants. Our presentation is going to be followed by a Q&A session. If you have any questions throughout the presentation for the presenter, please use the Q&A widget to submit your question. We're going to try to answer all questions at the end of the presentation. But if we run out of time, we will answer everything later via e-mail. We do capture all questions so a response will be sent to you. Additional content material is available for you to download in the resource list widget at the bottom of your screen. That's the green folder icon. You can expand the slide area by clicking on the maximize icon on the top right of the slide area or by dragging the bottom right corner of the slide area. [Operator Instructions] At this point, I'm happy to introduce you to our expert presenters you'll be hearing from today. First, we'll hear from Dr. Leila Masberger, who is the titration application specialist at Mettler-Toledo. Leila has a PhD in inorganic chemistry and 10 years of research and development experience in bioinorganic and medicinal chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, Zurich University and Zurich University Hospital. As an application specialist, she works in application development, customer support and sales as well as internal and external training. With our expertise in electrochemistry, she focuses on method development and optimization in Karl Fisher titration and its automation in the lithium-ion battery field. We're then going to hear from Dr. Roman Neufeld, Honeywell Senior Research Scientist for Karl Fisher titration. Roman joined Honeywell in 2017 as an application chemist, providing support to a global customer base on technical queries and application development for Karl Fisher titration. Since 2018, he's expanded his role to include development of new and innovative hydrogel reagents to stay ahead of market needs. With that, I'm going to hand things over to Leila. Leila, take it away.

Thank you, Allison. Hello, everyone. I also would like to welcome you to our webinar, and I hope that we will have a [blissful] session altogether. So I would like to start my part by giving you a short introduction to lithium-ion batteries. Let's look at a lithium-ion battery cell. The three major components here are, [Anode] negative electrode, cathode positive electrode and the electrolyte. Anode materials act as the host where they reversibly allow lithium-ion intercalation and the intercalation -- so they can be categorized into three types: carbon materials, which are usually graphite base, metaloxide-like lithium titaniumoxide and alloy materials using silicon. In lithium-ion batteries, cathodes are critical as we determine the characteristics of a battery such as its capacity and output. Lithium oxygen and other metals together can form various combinations -- among those five combinations have shown the best performance. These are lithium cobalt oxide, lithium iron plus state, [Lithium ion manganese] oxide, lithium-nico manganese cobalt oxide and Lithium Nico Cobalt Aluminum oxide. It's interesting to know that the leading battery manufacturers commonly use a combination of the last two. The third major component is on electrolyte, which is mainly composed of solvents, additives and lithium salts like lithium [hexafluorophosphate] or other lithium salts -- so in this animation, you can see how the battery works. While the battery is discharging the oxidation reaction at the anode, released its electrons and lithium cations. The electrons flow through an external circuit to the cathode to balance the charge lithium cations flow via the electrolyte through the separator to the cathode. -- while charging -- the opposite reaction happens. Lithium cations are released by the cathode and received by the anode -- now as we went through the lithium ion battery cells, the components and how it works, I would like to discuss about a critical parameter for the battery manufacturers, which is the water content of lithium-ion battery components. So why is water an important quality control parameter for the battery manufacturers. As I discussed in previous slides, electrolyte has a significant impact on the overall performance of lithium-ion batteries. One of the components of the electrolyte is lithium salt like lithium hexafluorophosphate. This category of salts and [indiscernible] hydrolysis in the presence of residual water forming highly toxic and corrosive hydrochloric acid and lithium fluoride. Both substances lowered the electrodes efficiency over time by either disturbing the lithium intercalation [indiscernible] of electrons. Hydrochloric acid can further lead to heat release due to the degradation of the cathode, risking a thermal runaway scenario. This is exactly why water is called battery poison and it's important for the manufacturers to measure the water content of their materials. So to measure the water content of lithium ion battery components called Fisher titration technique is usually used. This technique can be divided into two categories: Indirect titration with KF oven, which is usually used for solid samples like electrode materials for electrolyte salts and indirect kilometer called Fisher titration -- sorry, direct geometrical Fisher titration, which is usually used for liquid samples like solvents, additives and electrolytes. So the first part, indirect titration with KF oven, I'm going to cover and the second part will be covered by Roman. So as you know, Karl Fisher titration is a standard method to determine the water content in various materials. But the issue is that this water needs to be freely available. In certain materials, the water may be bound tightly or released slowly. Other materials under go side reactions with KF reagents or have a poor solubility in those reagents. So to avoid these issues in the oven extraction technique is usually used. So how does this technique work? The basic of this technique is quite simple. The sample is heated in the oven here at this specific temperature and the plant heating the water evaporates. -- and it's transferred by carrier gas like a stream of dry air or nitrogen into the titration vessel, where it's measured. So I use this technique, the oven extraction technique to measure the water content of electrode materials. This is the setup that I used, Coulometric Karl Fiscer titrator, in combination with emotion [oven]. As I would like to go more into details, I'm going to explain how I measure it part by part -- so the first part is a titration cell. If you look at the table here, I use three different combination of reagents with two different generative electrodes. Under the condition A, I use the generator electrode without diaphragm, it's Coulomat AG as my reagent. Under the condition B, I use the generator electrode with [indiscernible] and Coulomat AG with Coulomat CG as my reagents. Under the last condition, C, I use the generate electrode with diaphragm [indiscernible] with Coulomat AG oven and Coulomat CG. So as you might be aware, Coulomat-AG oven is the dedicated reagent for the oven technique, which has a higher boiling point and lower vapor pressure compared to Coulomat AG. Regarding the [generative] electrodes with and without [indiscernible] for samples, with the water content lower than 50 ppm we recommend to use a generative electrode with [diaphragm] as the results would be more accurate and the standard deviation would be smaller -- so the second part is the sample prep. As the electrode materials came in sheets, I cut the electro sheet into small slates using scissors and weigh in about 2.5 grams of those slates into [indiscernible] vials. Of course, depends on what you have, the sample size, you can also use 5 ml or 20 ml vials. After that, I closed -- after that, I closed the one piece of screw cap very tightly, as you can see. And then I placed the vial on the rack. So this is the simplest and cleanest sample prep, especially for the battery manufacturers who sometimes use these instruments in a dry room or a glove box. After preparing sample vials, -- we go to the rack and the order of the vials on the rack is [drift] vials, blank files and sample vials. So after the titration cell and the sample prep, it's time to prepare the method and start the measurements. So to run these measurements, I use Method 808, which is a well-established method for the exact water content determination in electrode materials. In this method, the oven temperature is set at 160-degree Celsius. The gas [ polorate ] is set at 80 milliter per minute and the [start] drift lower than 10 microgram per minute. And as my carrier gas, I use nitrogen. As you press start, the instrument initiates the measurement sequence, the first step is the pre-titration step, as you can see here, which reached the measurement conditions are equilibrated. The second step is the drift determination. The third blind determination and the last step is the sample determination -- so in this animation, you can see better what happens and the vial is pulled into the oven. The plastic cap is pierced by the double needle system than the blue silicon has tightly on the [pierced] cap and sealed it. So to see better, I can actually explain here. So this is the blue silicon head, which sits tightly on the pierced cap and seals it. And while the carrier gas flow through the inner needle, the green flow to the sample, the evaporated water, the blue flow is transported via the outer needle to the titration cell where the water can be measured. You can see in the next animation, how it works. So this is the evaporated water, which is transferred to the titration vessel -- so these are the results that I obtained. I analyze the cathode material and the anode material under three different conditions, A, B and C. The specification limit for both anode and cathode materials was 150 ppm. As you can see for the anode material -- for the cathode material, sorry, here. So I determine [mean water] contents of about 100 ppm with similar standard deviation and for anode materials here, I obtained mean water content of about 70 - 80 ppm with similar standard deviation. As the mean water content of their respective sets are all below the specified limits of 150 ppm, I can say that all three different setups that are used are suitable to determine the water content in lithium-ion battery electrode materials.So to run this measurement, I used the InMotion oven Pro since it has a temperature scan function, which is a quite useful function. So as you know, in the open extraction technique, the oven temperature is a decisive factor because if the temperature is too high, then the sample degrades. And if it's too low, then the results are inaccurate. So we use this temperature scan method to understand what happens to the sample during the heating phase. The target is to identify the correct water extraction temperature and also the degradation temperature and stay below that while analyzing the sample. Here, you can see the temperature scan of copper sulfide pentahydrate. Here, I just show you the first two peaks. The first peak correlates to the loss of the surface water. This is the first peak, and the second to the loss of the crystal water. So by, for example, choosing 140-degree Celsius as your oven temperature, you can make sure that you detect both crystal water and surface water. However, if you set the oven temperature at 90-degree Celsius, then you cannot detect the crystal water. So to have a better understanding of how the oven auto sample works, here is a short animation. [Presentation]

Great. Thank you, everyone, for your attention. And Roman, the stage is yours.

Thank you, Leila, for giving us a nice overview about the indirect Karl Fischer titration using the KF oven method, the music is so awesome of this video. So cool. Yes, Leila, now you can lay back and drink some coffee. And hi, everybody. And let me start with some words about the indirect titration with the oven. So this open method is really important Karl Fischer technique. And I also use it in my application lab. However, one of the biggest challenges is to find the correct heating temperature for each type of sample. And on the one hand, it is important that the high heating temperature is used. So the water release is going as fast as possible, and this would provide short titration times and increased accuracy. But on the other hand, temperature must not be too high because then the sample starts to decompose, which will give no titration endpoint or at least wrong results. And this is also the case if the temperature is too low. Yes. But once the method is quantified with the optimum heating temperature, this KF oven method is a really nice tool for examining the water content in solid lithium battery components. Fortunately, this method is not useful for liquid [ LIB ] samples since most of them do not release all of the water before the sample starts to decompose. And furthermore, most solvent condensate inside the transfer tubes, where they can catch evaporated water from the sample, and then this water is missing in the titration cell. And in the end, both mentioned effects provide inaccurate results. And this is the reason why we highly recommend using the direct titration method for liquid [ LIB ] samples because this way, you can really guarantee that all of the water of the sample is reaching the titration sell. And yes, the indirect -- sorry, the direct titration often looks very easy. But actually, there are a lot of stumbling [ blocks ] that can cause wrong results or significant errors. And therefore, I thought it would make sense to give you some tips and tricks to help you avoiding falling on your face like this little [ turtle has. ] And this is why, yes, I give you some recommendations to get very best results for the direct titration. And let's start with the first recommendation, which is use -- to use -- generator electrode with diaphragm. So in the cell with the diaphragm,the anode and the cathode are separated from each other, and this has the advantage that less [indiscernible] reactions can take place on the cathode and this leads to more accurate results and a smaller standard deviation, especially for samples with very low water content. Furthermore, deposits on the cathode can be largely prevented, and this is especially relevant for electrolytes that contain reactive additives such as [indiscernible] or FEC, which tend to polymerize on the cathode. And yes, if the cathode is constantly covered by a polymer, then it must apply a higher voltage to maintain the Karl Fischer titration, and this would lead in the end to a faster oxidation of the electrode. And in long term, this will damage your generator electrode. And this is the reason why we recommend to use generator electrode with the diaphragm. This not only gives you more accurate results but also ensures a longer [ shelf ] life of your electrote. Yes. The second chip that I want to give you is to handle the liquid sample correctly. And for the handling of liquid samples or also water standards, we generally recommend using gas-tight glass syringes. And like this one, also with long thin needles, they have the benefit that they can be reused, so you do not waste so much plastic, [indiscernible] has been transferred into the syringe. The sample is very well protected against external humidity. And this is, for example, not true for plastic syringes so they can also take water from the sample or they can also release water if the plastic was exposed to high humidity. So in the end, if plastic syringes can also be used, but then please make sure that they are very fresh and that they have not been used before and not stored at high humidity. In general, we went to [indiscernible] or water standard [indiscernible] you open in the lab because the sample may lose some water. And on the other hand, if the humidity level is very high, then the sample can also take water from the environment. And therefore, recommend closing the beaker as fast as possible and open [indiscernible] in the lab. Yes. And I thought it might be helpful for you if I show you once how we recommend to handling water standards properly and not only water standards, but this time, I would show it to you on the liquid sample, and I can move my camera. So before taking your sample into the syringe, we recommend to shake the beaker carefully. So the sample gets homogenized and then open the cap and cover it with the soft paper tissue. So no humidity influence or can influence your sample. So we cover it with a paper tissue, then you see a syringe and take a small amount, let's say, open 5 milliliter from your sample to rinse the syringe and also the plunger. Afterwards, remove disposing solution and wipe the needle dry. Finally, take the sample into the syringe and close the beaker as fast as possible. And at this stage, it's normal that a little bubble is inside the syringe. And before I remove it, I always use it to homogenize the sample within the syringe. So that makes sure that the water content inside the sample is everywhere the same and homogenized. And finally, we can remove the bubble and wipe the needle dry. So now the sample can be added by back [ weighing ] to the titration vessel and the titration can be performed. And if the sample inside syringe was allowed to rest a little bit on the shelf, then before you do the next titration, please remove a few drops from the tip of the needle because if it had too much time to rest, then it's very likely that some of the water from the environment was able to [indiscernible] into the needle. And you get rid of this water. We recommend to rinse the tip of the needle for further handling. Okay. Now you know how to handle the sample correctly. And if you use this recommended procedure, then I'm pretty sure that you will get the very best results from your titration. Okay, one second. Okay. You can also find this recommendation in the download section, it's the technical information sheet #7. All right. Then we come to the third tip which relates on the start of titration. And Mettler-Toledo [indiscernible] show the current drift in such a drift time-related graph. And if you see that the drift is tumbling between a low and a high value, it's recommended to start the titration at the middle drift value to get very best and reproducible results. So this is especially true for samples which contain very low water content, let's say, below 20 ppm. As an example, if the drift is fluctuating between 2 and 10 microgram per minute, then please start the titration at the middle value, which would be 6 microgram per minute here for optimized drift correction. And yes, if you would start, for example, titration at 2 microgram per minute, then the drift correction will be too low, and the result will be a little bit over determined, whereas if the titration started at 10 micrograms per minute, then the drift correction will be a little bit too strong and the water content will be a little bit underdetermined. But -- and this is really only valid for samples with very low water content. So if you have a water content above 100 or even 1,000 ppm, then the small changes in the drift are not so critical. But if you have a very low water content and good electrolyte with only 1 ppm water, then this will make changes. We recommend waiting at least 70 seconds between each titration. So the background drift has enough time to stabilize before a new determination is performed. Okay. Now we come to a very important topic, which is -- so the Karl Fischer reaction is a very robust method. Unfortunately, there are 3 problems, and I can talk only about the most important side reactions that can occur in modern battery electrolytes, especially high-performance electrolytes, which contain VC, FEC or borates like LiBOB show side reactions that lead to highly overdetermined water values or sometimes no results at all. And yes, I think it is always easier to keep things in memory if you not only learn that these compounds more likely, it's better to understand why these compounds are causing problems. And this is why, in the next few minutes, I would like to lead you into the world of organic chemistry, if you like it or not, but I promise it won't take too long, okay? Let's start with the side reaction that is caused by VC, vinylene carbonate, and molecules like VC have an electron rich double bond, which is due to the ring strain is extremely reactive. And this is why it undergoes easily in electrified edition of iodine to the VC double bond. And as a result, the titrator interpretates this side reaction as an ongoing Karl Fischer reaction, which leads to no titration endpoints or extremely high water content results. Furthermore, by taking up an electron, VC is able to polymerize on the cathode like I have already said at the beginning. And this formation of the polymer provides a protective SEI layer on the electrodes of the battery. So this is something that is wanted because it results in an increased shelf life of the battery and the better cycle performance. However, having polymer on the generator electrode is not so good, and this will decrease the lifetime of the generator electrode. The similar reaction happens with FEC. Here, an electrochemical reduction occurs whereby VC is formed. And this undergoes the side reactions that I have shown before. And when the titration is performed with borates like LiBOB, another reaction is taking place. It's a very fast reaction, most likely one of the oxalate groups react with 2 mls of alcohol, whereby equimolar amounts of lithium oxalate ester and boric acid ester. And this is important water are produced. And this releasing -- water releasing side reaction is very fast. And at the first glance, the titration in methanolic reagents looks totally normal. So you will get a beautiful titration curve with the stable endpoint LiBOB. So instead, you will find 1,000, sometimes 3,000 ppm water releasing side reaction. And -- yes, good news is that we now offer the very alcohol-free reagents in which water releasing side reactions with LiBOB are not possible anymore. And these 3 agents enable, for the first time, accurate titrations in LiB electrolytes that contain LiBOB. And furthermore, as you can see in the graph below, also accurate titrations of POVC and FEC can also be performed without side reactions. And yes, this is why we highly recommend using the new FA reagents for the titration of LiB samples with reactive additives such as VC, FEC and LiBOB. Yes -- and if you have lithium battery electrolytes that are free of such reactive compounds, you can lower your costs by using methanolic reagents such as Coulomat AG, together with CGS catholyte. And finally, for the indirect titration of solid lithium battery samples with the KF oven method, which Leila has shown you before, we would recommend using special reagents for the oven applications, which are Hydranal Coulomat AG Oven. And in the cell with AG Oven works in both types of cells with and without diaphragm. And the benefit of AG Oven is that some of the methanol is replaced by less volatile propylene glycol, and this provides a lower drift and gives, therefore, more accurate results and furthermore slower loss of [Indiscernible]. Yes, last but not least, I would like to complete my presentation by showing you the recommended titration parameters for Hydranal reagents for coulometric Mettler-Toledo equipment. So basically, all reagents work with the standard parameters that are shown in the first column. However, by using the here shown methods [Indiscernible] parameter, you can [Indiscernible] titrating results, and we highly recommend using the special parameters, and you can also download this table from the download section. All right. Guys, then I thank you very much for your attention, and I hope you found this presentation helpful. And if you need any further support on Karl Fischer Titration, please contact our Hydranal support, and we are at Honeywell and Mettler-Toledo would be very glad to help you. Yes. Thank you very much.

Okay. Great. Thank you very much Leila and Roman for showing your knowledge with us today. Before we jump into the Q&A session, I do see a decent amount of questions in here already. We'd really appreciate your feedback on our presentation today so that we can continue to improve and always be offering you high-value webinars. So you should have a survey widget icon. Thank you in advance if you have the time to click on this, take a minute to answer a few questions for us. It will be open until the webinar ends. While we're working on that, I'd like to open the floor for the Q&A. So please feel free to continue to populate any questions you have in there. And I'll hand it over to Roman, do you want to take the first one, maybe.

Yes. Check. So we have a few questions. Okay. My question, how should the cathode be tested if there is NMP in the cathode? I think it's in the cathode material. Yes, this is a little bit problematic because NMP release the water very slowly. So if you have if you have NMP -- if you have pure NMP, then we would really recommend to titrate NMP directly in the titration cell. For this, also the A-FA reagents are useful. But with the oven method, pure NMP does not work because it starts to decompose before it gives all of the water to the titration cell. However, in small amounts, it is possible to do it with the oven with the indirect titration, but I'm not sure which method is useful for that. So maybe some ideas or there is maybe also an application note for cathodic material where NMP is also added as a mixture. Yes, sorry, I cannot answer a complete question. But if you have, for example, like I said, before pure NMP, then you can do the titration with Coulomat A-FA and C-FA reagents. Leila, would you like to continue?

Yes. So I have a question here. What is the minimum concentration or way of water that can be detected with this oven method? So the limit of detection for our oven method is 10 ppm. Of course, you can go even lower than that, but you will have a -- like a larger standard deviation.

Okay, then I can continue. May I ask why to remove that air bubble if we use [ pecan ]? If it is for the humidity of air, then why do we keep the bubble while mixing the sample? Yes. So this very small bubble, which is formed inside the syringe, when you take your sample, so it will always be there because it's the dead volume of the needle. And normally, this small amount of air is not a problematic. But if you would take high amounts of air into the syringe, this is really serious, especially with lithium battery electrolytes, which contain carbonates and they are very, very hygroscopic. So this way, you will get a lot of humidity into your sample, but only this very small bubble is no problem at all. And like I said before, I always use it to homo the sample within the syringe. And this way you can make sure that the sample within the syringe is homogenized as well. Okay, Leila?

Okay. There's some -- there's another question. Is there a problem of condensation along the transfer line? So there is a possibility of condensation. But to optimize that, we offer a heating transfer tube. So the temperature of the transfer tube is around 40 degrees Celsius. So I think with that, it's -- the situation can be optimized.

The heating?

The heating transfer tube, yes.

Yes. Up to 40 degree?

Yes.

Okay. I guess, for carbonates, it's not good enough, but maybe for other volatile compounds that should work. But for electrolytes that even this heating of the transfer tube will not be sufficient to get all of the water into the titration cell, just a -- as a small information. Okay. Here is someone who has noticed a negative ppm value in some samples, which indicates that the blank has a higher water content compared to the sample of vial? Yes. I know that it is possible to get negative volumes -- sorry, negative values due to -- the determination is always done in an empty vial. So you have a huge volume inside the vial. And then you will measure, let's say, 100 ppm -- 100-microgram water. But if you fill the vial with a lot of sample, then the volume inside the blank is much smaller, therefore, the blank value is also smaller. So this means that the blank correction uses a too high value. And this value can be higher than the water content of your sample. And this way, you will get a negative results. And to compensate this effect, it is useful to do a blank -- correction of the blank correction, so to say. So if you see that the vial is filled to half of the volume of the blank vial, then you can use the half of the determinant blank value for the correction. And this way, you should be able to get the correct water results of your sample. And to practice that, we also in oven -- sorry, an oil water standard. This oil water standard test only 8 ppm water. And there, the same effect happens. So if you use the normal blank value, then you will get negative results. And -- but if you correct the blank value by reducing it by the same amount and then you will get correct results. So if you are looking for water standard and blank value [Audio Gap] Leila, I think you are on mute?

Yes. So regarding this negative blank value, I think there are also some parameters that caused this condition, which I can send a full e-mail. It is an answer. So there is another question. You provided the results for cathode and anode. How one can be sure that this water concentration were not underestimated, or this -- do you have the corresponding solid standard? Yes, so usually before running any measurements, we check our instrument with water standard oven 1%, which is a solid standard. And so by basically checking the recovery, we check how much basically we received the water from this water standard, and we can check if the instrument works precisely. So this is what we usually do before running any measurements in the oven.

Leila, I had some sound problems. I don't know what to say, if it was also for the audience. Can you maybe repeat your answer?

Yes. So I don't know if you heard the question, did you hear the question?

No, the answer for the question.

Okay. So I said that usually before running any measurements, we use water standard oven 1% to check if the instrument is actually working precisely and accurately. So this is the solid standard that we usually use for coulometry Karl Fischer Titration with InMotion Oven. With volumetric, it's another story.

Standard.

Yes.

That's true.

Yes.

We also offer oven standards with 5 ppm water.

Yes. That's also...

So we think that using a water standard with more water is even better than only with 1% because if you lose 10% of -- 1% standard, it's -- do not see that directly. But if you lose 10% or 5% water standard, then you will be able to recognize it very, very fast. And -- but -- yes, we also offer application notes and technical information sheets for the qualification of oven systems. So there's some more information, please give us a note. And yes, I would -- then I take the other next question, Leila.

Yes, sure.

The question is if we -- perfect. Thank you. One question is regarding the next-gen Coulomat A-FA reagents. If there will be a smart chemical version with an RFID code? I can say that, yes, we offer the smart chemicals, which are attached with smart label, but this is currently only available for the comp site. I think only for volumetric -- for volumetric Karl Fischer reagents from Honeywell. So for comp site 5 and titron 5 and so on. But currently, we do not -- we are not planning to launch smart chemicals for the coulometric Karl Fischer titration, but maybe we can talk internally about this idea. Maybe [Audio Gap] Leila?

Yes. There is another question, but I think I will answer it via e-mail because there is like a -- I don't think that we will have enough time for that.

Okay. How do we [Indiscernible] a good question. So basically, if you [Indiscernible] then we recommend to replace a catholyte at least once in the week and it [Audio Gap] will give sulphuric compounds, and they really start to just now very, very bad. And it's also possible that the cathode may become black. So this is why we always recommend to replace the catholyte, at least once in a week. And yes, regarding the analyte, it really depends which method is used. So if you have the oven method, then in most cases, the Coulomat AG Oven lasts for at least 2 or 3 weeks. Of course, it also depends on how much water is saturated. But yes, if you do direct titrations with electrolytes, which are highly reactive or highly complex compounds. And then we would recommend to exchange the reagent at least once in a week. So the analyte. And latest when you see that precipitation inside the reagent is happening because once precipitation solids are formed within the analyte, it can cover the indication electrode and this would give negative influence on the indication. So maybe you will get wrong results because the [Audio Gap] endpoint measured. And this is why it is important to replace the reagent once you see precipitation in the titration cell.

Okay, guys. These are great questions. We've got about 5 minutes left. I know some of these are longer answers than we've got time here today to answer unfortunately. I think we've got time to take maybe one more question. Roman, do you have any other ones in here that are enough to fit into the short time frame that we've got left.

Yes, let me check. Here is one. What -- is there a recommended temperature range for lithium-ion battery components analysis by KF Oven [Audio Gap] issues? Yes, that's right. It's -- basically, it's difficult just to give a general answer or a general temperature for lithium salts. So some salts are very stable until more than 250 degree Celsius. For example, LiBOB stable to 250 degrees Celsius. But I also had some that were decomposing 160 degree. So it really depends on the lithium salt. And this is why it is very important to have an oven equipment, which is able to do these temperature ramps because there you can screen the temperature between 25 degrees Celsius and 250, or I think the InMotion is even able to go to 280 degree Celsius. Please correct me if I'm wrong, Leila. And there you can really, for each individual sample, you can scan the temperature ramp where you will see when does the water come and when is a low drift reached and at which temperature the decomposition is starting. So [Audio Gap] ramps you can find temperature for [Audio Gap] [Indiscernible] values, then please check this temperature ramp in order to get the best heating temperature. Otherwise, it's really -- can be lucky that you have -- if you always use 150 degree Celsius, let's say, and you are lucky that for many samples, this is a good temperature, but can we also be very unlucky and get some samples which do not release all of the water at 150 degrees Celsius or even decompose at this temperature. So [Indiscernible] temperature for each sample.

So just to complete your answer, yes, that's exactly why I use the InMotion KF Pro because with this function, the temperature scan function, I could basically see at which temperature, the water evaporated for the lithium-ion battery electrode materials for anode and cathode. And then at which temperature, they basically degrade. So that's exactly why I use. And the upper temperature limit is 280 degrees Celsius, you were right.

Okay. Cool. Yes, that's a nice function.

Okay. Great, guys. Well, I know we still have more questions here than we have time for. Don't worry, we will follow up with all of you via e-mail. With that, I really want to thank Leila and Roman, both for sharing their expertise with us today for joining us in your busy schedules. I hope you found this time well spent. At this point, we'll be closing both the teleconference line and the webinar platform. So have a great rest of your day. Thanks, everyone.

Thank you. Bye-bye.

Thank you. Bye.