Glyme-based electrolytes were studied for the use in lithium–air batteries because of their greater stability towards oxygen reduction reaction intermediates (e.g., superoxide anion radicals (O2˙−)) produced upon discharge at the cathode compared to previously employed carbonate-based electrolytes. However, contradictory results of glyme stability tests employing KO2 as an O2˙− source were reported in the literature. For clarification, we investigated the reaction of KO2 with glymes of various chain lengths qualitatively using 1H NMR and FTIR spectroscopy as well as more quantitatively using UV-Vis spectroscopy. During our experiments we found a huge impact of small quantities of impurities on the stability of the solvents. Therefore, we studied further the influence of impurities in the glymes on the cycling behavior of Li–O2 cells, demonstrating the large effect of electrolyte impurities on Li–O2 cell performance.
