What Is Lithium?
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Lithium is a chemical element with atomic number 3 and the symbol Li. It's a soft, silvery-white alkali metal that's the lightest of all metals and the third lightest element overall. Lithium has become essential to modern technology as the basis of lithium-ion batteries powering phones, laptops, and electric vehicles.
Lithium is the lightest metal on the periodic table and probably the element most associated with modern energy storage. The same metal that's used as a mood stabilizer in bipolar disorder treatment is also what makes phones, laptops, and electric vehicles run. Demand has exploded with the electric vehicle boom, making lithium one of the most strategically important elements in the global economy.
Where is lithium on the periodic table?
Lithium has atomic number 3, the symbol Li, and sits at the top of group 1 of the periodic table among the alkali metals, just below hydrogen and above sodium. Its atomic mass is about 6.94. Two stable isotopes exist, Li-6 (7.5%) and Li-7 (92.5%). Lithium was discovered in 1817 by Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson while analyzing a mineral called petalite. The name comes from the Greek lithos meaning 'stone' because it was first found in rocks. Lithium is relatively rare in Earth's crust at about 20 ppm.
What are the properties of lithium?
Lithium is the lightest metal with a density of just 0.53 g/cm³, about half the density of water, which is why it floats on water (and reacts with it). The melting point is 180.5°C and boiling point is 1,342°C. Pure lithium is soft enough to cut with a knife and has a silvery-white color that quickly tarnishes to dark gray in air. Like other alkali metals, lithium reacts with water to release hydrogen, though less violently than sodium or potassium. The metal is highly reactive and must be stored under oil or in inert gas.
What is lithium used for?
Lithium-ion batteries are the dominant use, powering smartphones, laptops, electric vehicles, and increasingly grid energy storage. Lithium has the best energy-to-weight ratio of any battery chemistry currently in production. Lithium grease is widely used as a lubricant because it remains stable across a wide temperature range. Aluminum-lithium alloys reduce aircraft weight while maintaining strength. Lithium compounds are used in glass and ceramics to improve thermal shock resistance. Lithium carbonate has been used since the 1940s as a medication to stabilize mood in bipolar disorder.
Where does lithium come from?
Most commercial lithium comes from two main sources. Lithium brines from underground reservoirs in the Lithium Triangle of South America (Chile, Argentina, Bolivia) are pumped to evaporation ponds where the water slowly evaporates over 12-18 months, concentrating the lithium. Hard rock mining of spodumene and lepidolite ores in Australia and elsewhere provides the rest. As demand has exploded with EV growth, new sources are being developed including geothermal brines and recycled batteries. Lithium production has approximately tripled over the past decade.
Lithium is the lightest metal and the lightest element that's truly a metal. Once a niche chemical used in glass and medication, it now powers the global transition to electric mobility and renewable energy storage. Few elements have moved from obscure to essential as quickly as lithium has in the past two decades.
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