Interesting Facts About Lithium

Everyone knows the expanding EV market demands Lithium. But did you know that Lithium is also essential for cell phones, laptops, power tools… yup, pretty much every electrical device that requires a long-lasting battery. It’s not just about EV’s anymore…

• Lithium carbonate is also used in medicine
• Lithium is used as a heat transfer agent
• Lithium is used as an alloy with aluminum, copper, manganese, and cadmium to make high performance aircraft parts
• Lithium is used as an additive to continuous casting mould flux slags where it increases fluidity
• Lithium compounds are used as additives to foundry sand for iron casting to reduce veining
• Lithium fluoride is used as an additive to aluminum smelters to reduce melting temperatures and increase electrical resistance
• Added to concrete, Lithium makes concrete harden faster
• Added to molten glass, Lithium makes the glass lighter and stronger
• Lithium stearate can be mixed with oil to make all-purpose and high-temperature lubricants
• Lithium assists in the perfection of silicon nano-welds in electronic components
• Lithium hydroxide and Lithium peroxide are used to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere of spacecraft and for air purification in submarines
• Lithium perchlorate is used in oxygen candles that supply submarines with oxygen
• Lithium also has various nuclear applications, for example as a coolant in nuclear reactors
• Lithium is bombarded with neutrons to form tritium, also used in nuclear applications
• Lithium-6 deuteride serves as a fusion fuel in staged thermonuclear weapons
• Lithium chloride and bromide are used as desiccants for gas streams
• Lithium compounds are used as pyrotechnic colorants and oxidizers in red fireworks and flares
• Lithium fluoride is sometimes used in focal lenses for telescopes
• Lithium niobate is used extensively in optical modulators for such components as resonant crystals
• Lithium hydrides are used as high-energy additives to rocket propellants
• Lithium aluminum hydride can be used by itself as a solid fuel
• Lithium was one of the three elements produced in large quantities in the BigBang. The others were hydrogen and helium
• Lithium was discovered in 1817 by Johan August Afrvedson during an analysis of petalite (LiAISi4O10)
• It took until 1855 for chemists Augustus Mattiessen and Robert Bunsen to isolate Lithium, separating the element by running a current through Lithium chloride
• The word “Lithium” is derived from the Greek “lithos” meaning stone
• Lithium atomic number: 3
• Atomic symbol: Li
• Relative atomic mass: 6.941
• Lithium is the lightest of all metals
• Lithium is the least dense of all elements that are solids at room temperature, with a density comparable to pine wood
• Apart from helium and hydrogen, Lithium is less dense than any liquid element
• Lithium is one of only three metals that can float on water, the other two being sodium and potassium
• Lithium metal is soft enough to be cut with a knife
• Lithium is the only alkali metal that reacts with nitrogen
• Lithium reacts aggressively with water
• Because of its high reactivity, Lithium never occurs freely in nature, and instead appears only in compounds
• Lithium has 10 isotopes, 7 whose half-lives are known, and only two are stable
• Lithium burns with a crimson flame, but when the metal burns sufficiently well, the flame becomes a brilliant white
• The transmutation of Lithium atoms to helium in 1932 was the first truly man-made nuclear reaction
• Trace amounts of Lithium are present in all organisms