lithium batteries and climbing rope

This morning I was emptying out my climbing pack when I felt two strange cylindrical lumps at the bottom of the reservoir pouch. Much to my consternation, they turned out to be batteries - Energizer Lithium CR123s - and they had a thin film of clear liquid residue on their ends. They'd been down there for about a month in a humid environment, during which time my rope was snuggled up tight against them on a daily basis, separated only by a flimsy piece of nylon. Neither the nylon of the reservoir pouch nor the rope show unusual wear but after a half hour of reading about batteries destroying ropes I'm feeling paranoid. Anyone have an idea of the kind of exposure it would take to damage a rope with such a small battery, particularly a lithium battery?

Nylon is used as a membrane/separator in Li-Ion batteries.

But, to answer your question ??????.

http://www.targray.com/li-ion-battery/separators

"Battery separators are power-driven spacers and can be produced with fiberglass cloth or flexible plastic films made from nylon, polyethylene or polypropylene."

I think lead acid batteries are the ones terrible for a rope.

I'm not sure about lithium ion, though. If nylon is used inside the battery...

I wouldn't be surprised if the rope was fine. But I'm not sure I could climb on it either, without *knowing* it was fine...

This is what you need to do to be sure. Go to your local store and buy three nylon slings. Any length. Then take the batteries and liberally apply the residue to two of them. Send all three sealed in separate zip lock bags to the sling manufacturer, Metolious or Black Diamond and have them pull test the slings. Compare the tested samples to the control. That's the only way you can be sure.

If I'm reading the OP correctly, the batteries didn't even touch the rope.

if the batteries weren't touching it you're probably fine.

A: The batteries didn't touch the rope: you're fine.
B: The batteries are tiny, the amount of corrosion residue is tiny, the sheath on your rope is super thick: you're fine.
C: Yer gonna die

You are probably fine, but that is the thing, probably. In climbing we have really high consequences for when things go wrong. I personally would spend the 200-300 for a new rope rather then risk the chance of it breaking in a fall. I know it sucks to replace a rope early, I have had to do it for a core shot, but I want to live to have another adventure.

if this guy convinces you^^^^^^^ i'll take your old rope

The original poster said there was a "liquid residue" left on the batteries. Nylon is permeable to liquids. Therefore just because of the fact that the battery did not touch the rope it does not mean that the liquid did not touch the rope. I bet the rope is okay, but...