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Lithium (from , , ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Li and atomic number 3. It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable, and must be stored in vacuum, inert atmosphere, or inert liquid such as purified keroseneSpellman, F. R. (2023). The Science of Lithium. CRC Press. or mineral oil. It exhibits a metallic luster when pure, but quickly corrosion in air to a dull silvery gray, then black tarnish. It does not occur freely in nature, but occurs mainly as pegmatite minerals, which were once the main source of lithium. Due to its solubility as an ion, it is present in ocean water and is commonly obtained from . Lithium metal is isolated electrolysis from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.
The Atomic nucleus of the lithium atom verges on instability, since the two stable lithium found in nature have among the lowest binding energies per nucleon of all stable . Because of its relative nuclear instability, lithium is less common in the Solar System than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements even though its nuclei are very light: it is an exception to the trend that heavier nuclei are less common.Numerical data from: Graphed at SolarSystemAbundances.jpg For related reasons, lithium has important uses in nuclear physics. The transmutation of lithium atoms to helium in 1932 was the first fully human-made nuclear reaction, and lithium deuteride serves as a nuclear fusion fuel in staged thermonuclear weapons.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Nuclear Weapon Design. Federation of American Scientists (21 October 1998). fas.org
Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and , lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminium production, lithium metal batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. Batteries alone consume more than three-quarters of lithium production.
Lithium is present in biological systems in trace amounts. Lithium-based drugs are useful as a mood stabilizer and antidepressant in the treatment of mental illness such as bipolar disorder.
Lithium metal is soft enough to be cut with a knife. It is silvery-white. In air it oxidizes to lithium oxide. Its melting point of and its boiling point of are each the highest of all the alkali metals while its density of 0.534 g/cm3 is the lowest.
Lithium has a very low density (0.534 g/cm3), comparable with pine wood. It is the least dense of all elements that are solids at room temperature; the next lightest solid element (potassium, at 0.862 g/cm3) is more than 60% denser. Apart from helium and hydrogen, as a solid it is less dense than any other element as a liquid, being only two-thirds as dense as liquid nitrogen (0.808 g/cm3). Lithium can float on the lightest hydrocarbon oils and is one of only three metals that can float on water, the other two being sodium and potassium. Lithium's coefficient of thermal expansion is twice that of aluminium and almost four times that of iron. Lithium is superconductive below 400 microkelvin at standard pressure and at higher temperatures (more than 9 K) at very high pressures (>20 GPa). At temperatures below 70 K, lithium, like sodium, undergoes diffusionless phase change transformations. At 4.2 K it has a rhombohedral crystal system (with a nine-layer repeat spacing); at higher temperatures it transforms to face-centered cubic and then body-centered cubic. At liquid-helium temperatures (4 K) the rhombohedral structure is prevalent. Multiple allotropic forms have been identified for lithium at high pressures.
Lithium has a mass specific heat capacity of 3.58 kilojoules per kilogram-kelvin, the highest of all solids. SPECIFIC HEAT OF SOLIDS. bradley.edu Because of this, lithium metal is often used in for heat transfer applications.
7Li is one of the primordial elements (or, more properly, primordial ) produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis. A small amount of both 6Li and 7Li are produced in stars during stellar nucleosynthesis, but it is further "Lithium burning" as fast as produced. 7Li can also be generated in . Additional small amounts of both 6Li and 7Li may be generated from solar wind, cosmic rays hitting heavier atoms, and from early solar system 7Beryllium radioactive decay.
Lithium isotopes fractionate substantially during a wide variety of natural processes, including mineral formation (chemical precipitation), metabolism, and ion exchange. Lithium ions substitute for magnesium and iron in octahedral sites in clay minerals, where 6Li is preferred to 7Li, resulting in enrichment of the light isotope in processes of hyperfiltration and rock alteration. The exotic 11Li is known to exhibit a Halo nucleus, with 2 neutrons orbiting around its nucleus of 3 protons and 6 neutrons. The process known as laser isotope separation can be used to separate lithium isotopes, in particular 7Li from 6Li.
Nuclear weapons manufacture and other nuclear physics applications are a major source of artificial lithium fractionation, with the light isotope 6Li being retained by industry and military stockpiles to such an extent that it has caused slight but measurable change in the 6Li to 7Li ratios in natural sources, such as rivers. This has led to unusual uncertainty in the standardized atomic weight of lithium, since this quantity depends on the natural abundance ratios of these naturally occurring stable lithium isotopes, as they are available in commercial lithium mineral sources.
Both stable isotopes of lithium can be laser cooling and were used to produce the first quantum degenerate Bose–Fermi mixture.
According to modern cosmological theory, lithium—in both stable isotopes (lithium-6 and lithium-7)—was one of the three elements synthesized in the Big Bang. Though the amount of lithium generated in Big Bang nucleosynthesis is dependent upon the number of per baryon, for accepted values the lithium abundance can be calculated, and there is a "cosmological lithium discrepancy" in the universe: older stars seem to have less lithium than they should, and some younger stars have much more. The lack of lithium in older stars is apparently caused by the "mixing" of lithium into the interior of stars, where it is destroyed, while lithium is produced in younger stars. Although it lithium burning into two atoms of helium due to collision with a proton at temperatures above 2.4 million degrees Celsius (most stars easily attain this temperature in their interiors), lithium is more abundant than computations would predict in later-generation stars.
Lithium is also found in brown dwarf substellar objects and certain anomalous orange stars. Because lithium is present in cooler, less-massive brown dwarfs, but is destroyed in hotter red dwarf stars, its presence in the stars' spectra can be used in the "lithium test" to differentiate the two, as both are smaller than the Sun. Certain orange stars can also contain a high concentration of lithium. Those orange stars found to have a higher than usual concentration of lithium (such as Centaurus X-4) orbit massive objects—neutron stars or black holes—whose gravity evidently pulls heavier lithium to the surface of a hydrogen-helium star, causing more lithium to be observed.
On 27 May 2020, astronomers reported that classical nova explosions are galactic producers of lithium-7.
Estimates for the Earth's crustal content range from 20 to 70 ppm by weight. In keeping with its name, lithium forms a minor part of , with the largest concentrations in . Granitic also provide the greatest abundance of lithium-containing minerals, with spodumene and petalite being the most commercially viable sources. Another significant mineral of lithium is lepidolite which is now an obsolete name for a series formed by polylithionite and trilithionite. Another source for lithium is hectorite clay, the only active development of which is through the Western Lithium Corporation in the United States. At 20 mg lithium per kg of Earth's crust,Taylor, S. R.; McLennan, S. M.; The continental crust: Its composition and evolution, Blackwell Sci. Publ., Oxford, 330 pp. (1985). Cited in Abundances of the elements (data page) lithium is the 31st most abundant element.
According to the Handbook of Lithium and Natural Calcium, "Lithium is a comparatively rare element, although it is found in many rocks and some brines, but always in very low concentrations. There are a fairly large number of both lithium mineral and brine deposits but only comparatively few of them are of actual or potential commercial value. Many are very small, others are too low in Ore grade."Garrett, Donald (2004) Handbook of Lithium and Natural Calcium, Academic Press, cited in The Trouble with Lithium 2 , Meridian International Research (2008)
Chile is estimated (2020) to have the largest reserves by far (9.2 million tonnes), and Australia the highest annual production (40,000 tonnes). One of the largest reserve bases Appendixes . By USGS definitions, the reserve base "may encompass those parts of the resources that have a reasonable potential for becoming economically available within planning horizons beyond those that assume proven technology and current economics. The reserve base includes those resources that are currently economic (reserves), marginally economic (marginal reserves), and some of those that are currently subeconomic (subeconomic resources)." of lithium is in the Salar de Uyuni area of Bolivia, which has 5.4 million tonnes. Other major suppliers include Argentina and China. As of 2015, the Czech Geological Survey considered the entire Ore Mountains in the Czech Republic as lithium province. Five deposits are registered, one near is considered as a potentially economical deposit, with 160 000 tonnes of lithium. In December 2019, Finnish mining company Keliber Oy reported its Rapasaari lithium deposit has estimated proven and probable ore reserves of 5.280 million tonnes.
In June 2010, The New York Times reported that American geologists were conducting ground surveys on Dry lake in western Afghanistan believing that large deposits of lithium are located there. These estimates are "based principally on old data, which was gathered mainly by the Soviet Union during their occupation of Afghanistan from 1979–1989". The The Pentagon estimated the lithium reserves in Afghanistan to amount to the ones in Bolivia and dubbed it as a potential "Saudi-Arabia of lithium". In Cornwall, England, the presence of brine rich in lithium was well known due to the region's historic mining industry, and private investors have conducted tests to investigate potential lithium extraction in this area.
Lithium is easily absorbed by and lithium concentration in plant tissue is typically around 1 ppm. Some plant families Bioaccumulation more lithium than others. Dry weight lithium concentrations for members of the family Solanaceae (which includes and ), for instance, can be as high as 30 ppm while this can be as low as 0.05 ppb for corn grains.
Studies of lithium concentrations in mineral-rich soil give ranges between around 0.1 and 50−100 ppm, with some concentrations as high as 100−400 ppm, although it is unlikely that all of it is available for uptake by . (1990). 9781461279679, Springer New York. ISBN 9781461279679
Lithium accumulation does not appear to affect the essential nutrient composition of plants. Tolerance to lithium varies by plant species and typically parallels Halotolerance; maize and Rhodes grass, for example, are highly tolerant to lithium injury while avocado and soybean are very sensitive. Similarly, lithium at concentrations of 5 ppm reduces seed germination in some species (e.g. Oryza sativa and chickpea) but not in others (e.g. barley and wheat).
Many of lithium's major biological effects can be explained by its competition with other ions. The Monovalent ion lithium Cation competes with other ions such as sodium (immediately below lithium on the periodic table), which like lithium is also a monovalent alkali metal. Lithium also competes with bivalent magnesium ions, whose ionic radius (86 Picometre) is approximately that of the lithium ion (90 pm). Mechanisms that transport sodium across cellular membranes also transport lithium. For instance, (both voltage-gated and epithelial) are particularly major pathways of entry for lithium. Lithium ions can also permeate through ligand-gated ion channels as well as cross both Nuclear membrane and Mitochondrion . Like sodium, lithium can enter and partially block (although not permeate) potassium channels and .
The biological effects of lithium are many and varied but its mechanisms of action are only partially understood. For instance, studies of lithium-treated patients with bipolar disorder show that, among many other effects, lithium partially reverses telomere shortening in these patients and also increases mitochondrial function, although how lithium produces these pharmacological effects is not understood.
Even the exact mechanisms involved in lithium toxicity are not fully understood.
One study indicated reduced cortical lithium in the brains of individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease. This deficiency, caused in part by lithium's sequestration within amyloid plaques, has been shown to accelerate Alzheimer's pathology in mouse models through the over-activation of the kinase GSK3β. This physiological role is distinct from the use of lithium-based drugs at much higher pharmacological doses as a mood stabilizer in the treatment of mental illness such as bipolar disorder.
Arfwedson later showed that this same element was present in the minerals spodumene and lepidolite.See:
In 1818, Christian Gmelin was the first to observe that lithium salts give a bright red color to flame. However, both Arfwedson and Gmelin tried and failed to isolate the pure element from its salts. It was not isolated until 1821, when William Thomas Brande obtained it by electrolysis of lithium oxide, a process that had previously been employed by the chemist Sir Humphry Davy to isolate the alkali metals potassium and sodium.Brande, William Thomas (1821) A Manual of Chemistry, 2nd ed. London, England: John Murray, vol. 2, Brande also described some pure salts of lithium, such as the chloride, and, estimating that lithia (lithium oxide) contained about 55% metal, estimated the atomic weight of lithium to be around 9.8 g/mol (modern value ~6.94 g/mol). In 1855, larger quantities of lithium were produced through the electrolysis of lithium chloride by Robert Bunsen and Augustus Matthiessen. The discovery of this procedure led to commercial production of lithium in 1923 by the German company Metallgesellschaft AG, which performed an electrolysis of a liquid mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. (2004). 9780080472904, Elsevier. ISBN 9780080472904
Australian psychiatrist John Cade is credited with reintroducing and popularizing the use of lithium to treat mania in 1949. Shortly after, throughout the mid-20th century, lithium's mood stabilizing applicability for mania and depression took off in Europe and the United States.
The production and use of lithium underwent several drastic changes in history. The first major application of lithium was in high-temperature for aircraft engines and similar applications in World War II and shortly after. This use was supported by the fact that lithium-based soaps have a higher melting point than other alkali soaps, and are less corrosive than calcium based soaps. The small demand for lithium soaps and lubricating greases was supported by several small mining operations, mostly in the US.
The demand for lithium increased dramatically during the Cold War with the production of nuclear fusion weapons. Both lithium-6 and lithium-7 produce tritium when irradiated by neutrons, and are thus useful for the production of tritium by itself, as well as a form of solid fusion fuel used inside hydrogen bombs in the form of lithium deuteride. The US became the prime producer of lithium between the late 1950s and the mid-1980s. At the end, the stockpile of lithium was roughly 42,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide. The stockpiled lithium was depleted in lithium-6 by 75%, which was enough to affect the measured atomic weight of lithium in many standardized chemicals, and even the atomic weight of lithium in some "natural sources" of lithium ion which had been "contaminated" by lithium salts discharged from isotope separation facilities, which had found its way into ground water.
Lithium is used to decrease the melting temperature of glass and to improve the melting behavior of aluminium oxide in the Hall-Héroult process. These two uses dominated the market until the middle of the 1990s. After the end of the nuclear arms race, the demand for lithium decreased and the sale of department of energy stockpiles on the open market further reduced prices. In the mid-1990s, several companies started to isolate lithium from brine which proved to be a less expensive option than underground or open-pit mining. Most of the mines closed or shifted their focus to other materials because only the ore from zoned pegmatites could be mined for a competitive price. For example, the US mines near Kings Mountain, North Carolina, closed before the beginning of the 21st century.
The development of lithium-ion batteries increased the demand for lithium and became the dominant use in 2007. With the surge of lithium demand in batteries in the 2000s, new companies have expanded brine isolation efforts to meet the rising demand.Jessica Elzea Kogel (2025). 9780873352338, Society for Mining, Metallurgy, and Exploration. ISBN 9780873352338
Because of its reactivity with water, and especially nitrogen, lithium metal is usually stored in a hydrocarbon sealant, often petroleum jelly. Although the heavier alkali metals can be stored under mineral oil, lithium is not dense enough to fully submerge itself in these liquids.
Lithium has a diagonal relationship with magnesium, an element of similar atomic and ionic radius. Chemical resemblances between the two metals include the formation of a nitride by reaction with N2, the formation of an lithium oxide () and peroxide () when burnt in O2, salts with similar solubility, and thermal instability of the and nitrides. The metal reacts with hydrogen gas at high temperatures to produce lithium hydride (LiH).
Lithium forms a variety of binary and ternary materials by direct reaction with the main group elements. These , although highly covalent, can be viewed as salts of polyatomic anions such as Si44-, P73-, and Te52-. With graphite, lithium forms a variety of intercalation compounds.
It dissolves in ammonia (and amines) to give Li(NH3)4+ and the solvated electron.
The compounds and are useful . These salts and many other lithium salts exhibit distinctively high solubility in ethers, in contrast with salts of heavier alkali metals.
In aqueous solution, the coordination complex Li(H2O)4+ predominates for many lithium salts. Related complexes are known with amines and ethers.
Like its inorganic compounds, almost all organic compounds of lithium formally follow the duet rule (e.g., N-Butyllithium, Methyllithium). However, it is important to note that in the absence of coordinating solvents or ligands, organolithium compounds form dimeric, tetrameric, and hexameric clusters (e.g., BuLi is actually BuLi6 and MeLi is actually MeLi4) which feature multi-center bonding and increase the coordination number around lithium. These clusters are broken down into smaller or monomeric units in the presence of solvents like dimethoxyethane (DME) or ligands like tetramethylethylenediamine (TMEDA). As an exception to the duet rule, a two-coordinate lithate complex with four electrons around lithium, Li(thf)4+((Me3Si)3C)2Li–, has been characterized crystallographically.
| +Lithium mine production (2023), reserves and resources in tonnes according to USGS | |||
| Argentina | 8,630 | 4,000,000 | 23,000,000 |
| Australia | 91,700 | 7,000,000 | 8,900,000 |
| Austria | - | - | 60,000 |
| Bolivia | - | - | 23,000,000 |
| Brazil | 5,260 | 390,000 | 1,300,000 |
| Canada | 3,240 | 1,200,000 | 5,700,000 |
| Chile | 41,400 | 9,300,000 | 11,000,000 |
| China | 35,700 | 3,000,000 | 6,800,000 |
| Czech Republic | - | - | 1,300,000 |
| DR Congo | - | - | 3,000,000 |
| Finland | - | - | 55,000 |
| Germany | - | - | 4,000,000 |
| Ghana | - | - | 200,000 |
| India | - | - | 5,900,000 |
| Kazakhstan | - | - | 45,000 |
| Mali | - | - | 1,200,000 |
| Mexico | - | - | 1,700,000 |
| Namibia | 2,700 | 14,000 | 230,000 |
| Peru | - | - | 1,000,000 |
| Portugal | 380 | 60,000 | 270,000 |
| Russia | - | - | 1,000,000 |
| Serbia | - | - | 1,200,000 |
| Spain | - | - | 320,000 |
| United States | 870In 2013 | 1,800,000 | 14,000,000 |
| Zimbabwe | 14,900 | 480,000 | 860,000 |
| Other countries | - | 2,800,000 | - |
| World total | 204,000Excludes U.S. production | 30,000,000 | 116,000,000+ |
Lithium production has greatly increased since the end of World War II. The main sources of lithium are and .
Lithium metal is produced through electrolysis applied to a mixture of fused 55% lithium chloride and 45% potassium chloride at about 450 °C.
Lithium is one of the elements critical in a world running on renewable energy and dependent on batteries. This suggests that lithium will be one of the main objects of geopolitical competition, but this perspective has also been criticised for underestimating the power of economic incentives for expanded production.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated worldwide identified lithium reserves in 2022 and 2023 to be 26 million and 28 million , respectively. An accurate estimate of world lithium reserves is difficult. One reason for this is that most lithium classification schemes are developed for solid ore deposits, whereas brine is a fluid that is problematic to treat with the same classification scheme due to varying concentrations and pumping effects.
In 2019, world production of lithium from spodumene was around 80,000t per annum, primarily from the Greenbushes pegmatite and from some China and Chilean sources. The Talison mine in Greenbushes is reported to be the largest and to have the highest grade of ore at 2.4% Li2O (2012 figures).
The three countries of Chile, Bolivia, and Argentina contain a region known as the Lithium Triangle. The Lithium Triangle is known for its high-quality salt flats, which include Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni, Chile's Salar de Atacama, and Argentina's Salar de Arizaro. , the Lithium Triangle had been estimated to contain over 75% of then known lithium reserves. Deposits found in subsurface brines have also been found in the United States (southwest Texas and Arkansas) and South America throughout the Andes mountain chain. In 2010, Chile was the leading producer, followed by Argentina. Both countries recover lithium from brine pools. According to USGS, Bolivia's Uyuni Desert has 5.4 million tonnes of lithium. Half the world's known reserves as of 2022 were located in Bolivia along the central eastern slope of the Andes. The Bolivian government invested US$900 million in lithium production by 2022, and in 2021 successfully produced 540 tons. The brines in the salt pans of the Lithium Triangle vary widely in lithium content. Concentrations can also vary over time as brines are fluids that are changeable and mobile.
Extracting lithium from brine deep in Wyoming's Rock Springs Uplift has been proposed as revenue source to make atmospheric carbon sequestration economically viable. (2025). 9781461457879, Springer New York. ISBN 9781461457879 Additional deposits in the same formation were estimated to be as much as 18 million tons if economic means of recovery can be employed. Similarly in Nevada, the McDermitt Caldera hosts lithium-bearing volcanic muds that consist of the largest known deposits of lithium within the United States.
In the US, lithium is recovered from brine pools in Nevada. Projects are also under development in Lithium Valley in California and from brine in southwest Arkansas using the direct lithium extraction process, drawing on the deep brine resource in the Smackover Formation.
On 16 July 2018 2.5 million tonnes of high-grade lithium resources and 124 million pounds of uranium resources were found in the Falchani hard rock deposit in the region Puno, Peru. In 2020, Australia granted Major Project Status (MPS) to the Finniss Lithium Project for a strategically important lithium deposit: an estimated 3.45 million tonnes (Mt) of mineral resource at 1.4 percent lithium oxide. CORE Lithium : Finnis Lithium , retrieved 13 October 2022 Operational mining began in 2022.
The Pampean Pegmatite Province in Argentina is known to have a total of at least 200,000 tons of spodumene with lithium oxide (Li2O) grades varying between 5 and 8 wt %.
In Russia the largest lithium deposit Kolmozerskoye is located in Murmansk region. In 2023, Polar Lithium, a joint venture between Nornickel and Rosatom, has been granted the right to develop the deposit. The project aims to produce 60,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and hydroxide per year and plans to reach full design capacity by 2030.
A 2012 Business Week article projected that global lithium consumption could increase to 300,000 metric tons a year by 2020, from about 150,000 tons in 2012, to match the demand for lithium batteries that had then been growing at about 25% a year, outpacing the late-2000s 4% to 5% overall gain in lithium production.
The price information service ISE – Institute of Rare Earths Elements and Strategic Metals – gives for various lithium substances in the average of March to August 2022 the following kilo prices stable in the course: Lithium carbonate, purity 99.5% min, from various producers between 63 and 72 EUR/kg. Lithium hydroxide monohydrate LiOH 56.5% min, China, at 66 to 72 EUR/kg; delivered South Korea – 73 EUR/kg. Lithium metal 99.9% min, delivered China – 42 EUR/kg.
By early 2021, much of the lithium mined globally came from either "spodumene, the mineral contained in hard rock formations found in places such as Australia and North Carolina" or from salty brine pumped directly out of the ground, as it is in locations in Chile, Argentina, and Arkansas.
In Chile's Salar de Atacama, the lithium concentration in the brine is raised by solar evaporation in a system of ponds. The enrichment by evaporation process may require up to one-and-a-half years, when the brine reaches a lithium content of 6%. The final processing in this example is done in Salar del Carmen and La Negra near the coastal city of Antofagasta where pure lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, and lithium chloride are produced from the brine.
Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technologies are being developed as alternatives to the evaporitic technology long used to extract lithium salts from . The traditional evaporitic technology is a long duration process requiring large amounts of land and intensive water use, and can only be applied to the large continental brines. In contrast, DLE technologies are proposed to tackle the environmental and techno–economic shortcomings by avoiding brine evaporation. Some recent lithium mining projects in the United States are attempting to bring DLE into commercial production by these non-evaporative DLE approaches.
One method of direct lithium extraction, as well as other valuable , is to process geothermal brine water through an electrolytic cell, located within a membrane.
The use of electrodialysis and electrochemical intercalation was proposed in 2020 to extract lithium compounds from seawater (which contains lithium at 0.2 parts per million). Ion-selective cells within a membrane in principle could collect lithium either by use of electric field or a concentration difference. In 2024, a redox/electrodialysis system was claimed to offer enormous cost savings, shorter timelines, and less environmental damage than traditional evaporation-based systems.
Although lithium occurs naturally, it is a non-renewable resource yet is seen as crucial in the transition away from fossil fuels, and the extraction process has been criticised for long-term degradation of water resources. In the southern reaches of Salar de Atacama lithium-producing company Albemarle Limitada reached a Conciliation in 2024 to make reparations freshwater uptake that would have contributed –along with the uptake of copper mining companies– to dry meadows locatede in the traditional lands of the indigenous Atacama people people. In its defense Albemarle Limitada have asserted that its use is minimal compared to that of the nearby copper mining companies.
In the United States, open-pit mining and mountaintop removal mining compete with Brine mining. Environmental concerns include wildlife habitat degradation, potable water pollution including arsenic and antimony contamination, unsustainable water table reduction, and massive mining waste, including radioactive uranium byproduct and sulfuric acid discharge.
During 2021, a series of mass protests broke out in Serbia against the construction of a lithium mine in Western Serbia by the Rio Tinto corporation. In 2024, an EU backed lithium mining project created large scale protests in Serbia.
Some animal species associated with salt lakes in the Lithium Triangle (in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile) are particularly threatened by the damages of lithium production to the local ecosystem, including the Andean flamingo and Orestias parinacotensis, a small fish locally known as "karachi".
In Argentina's Puna region, in 2023, two mining companies (Minera Exar and Sales de Jujuy) extracted over 3.7 billion liters of fresh water, over 31 times the annual water consumption of the local community of Susques department.
Extraction of lithium-rich brines in Salar de Atacama in Chile led to conflict about water use with local communities. The local indigenous population of Atacama people have a history of both opposing lithium extraction and negotiating for shared benefits with lithium companies. Negotiations occur under the framework of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Convention which Chile signed in 2008. It is argued that in Chile "agreements between Indigenous organizations and lithium companies have brought significant economic resources for community development, but have also expanded the mining industry's capacity for social control in the area.".
In Zimbabwe, the global increase in lithium prices in the early 2020s triggered a 'lithium fever' that led to displacement of locals and conflicts between small-scale artisanal miners and large-scale mining companies. Some local farmers agreed to relocate and were satisfied with their compensation. Artisanal miners occupied parts of the Sandawana mines and a privately owned lithium claim area in Goromonzi, a rural area close to the capital Harare. The artisanal miners were later evicted after the area was cordoned off and shut down by Zimbabwe's Environmental Management Agency.
Development of the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada, United States, has met with protests and lawsuits from several indigenous tribes who have said they were not provided free prior and informed consent and that the project threatens cultural and sacred sites. They have also expressed concerns that development of the project will create risks to indigenous women, because resource extraction is linked to missing and murdered Indigenous women. Protestors have been occupying the site of the proposed mine since January 2021.
Over the years opinions have been differing about potential growth. A 2008 study concluded that "realistically achievable lithium carbonate production would be sufficient for only a small fraction of future PHEV and electric vehicle global market requirements", that "demand from the portable electronics sector will absorb much of the planned production increases in the next decade", and that "mass production of lithium carbonate is not environmentally sound, it will cause irreparable ecological damage to ecosystems that should be protected and that LiIon propulsion is incompatible with the notion of the 'Green Car'".
Lithium (as lithium fluoride) is used as an additive to aluminium smelters (Hall–Héroult process), reducing melting temperature and increasing electrical resistance, a use which accounts for 3% of production (2011).
When used as a flux for welding or soldering, metallic lithium promotes the fusing of metals during the process and eliminates the formation of by absorbing impurities.
Lithium peroxide (Li2O2) in presence of moisture not only reacts with carbon dioxide to form lithium carbonate, but also releases oxygen. The reaction is as follows:
The high non-linearity of lithium niobate also makes it useful in nonlinear optics. It is used extensively in telecommunication products such as mobile phones and optical modulators, for such components as resonant crystals. Lithium applications are used in more than 60% of mobile phones.
Many other lithium compounds are used as reagents to prepare organic compounds. Some popular compounds include lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4), lithium triethylborohydride, N-Butyllithium and tert-butyllithium.
The Mark 50 torpedo stored chemical energy propulsion system (SCEPS) uses a small tank of sulfur hexafluoride, which is sprayed over a block of solid lithium. The reaction generates heat, creating steam to propel the torpedo in a closed Rankine cycle.
Lithium hydride containing lithium-6 is used in thermonuclear weapons, where it serves as fuel for the fusion stage of the bomb.
Lithium deuteride was the nuclear fusion of choice in early versions of the Nuclear weapon. When bombarded by , both 6Li and 7Li produce tritium — this reaction, which was not fully understood when hydrogen bombs were first tested, was responsible for the runaway yield of the Castle Bravo nuclear test. Tritium fuses with deuterium in a Nuclear fusion reaction that is relatively easy to achieve. Although details remain secret, lithium-6 deuteride apparently still plays a role in modern nuclear weapons as a fusion material.
Lithium fluoride, when highly enriched in the lithium-7 isotope, forms the basic constituent of the fluoride salt mixture LiF-BeF2 used in liquid fluoride nuclear reactors. Lithium fluoride is exceptionally chemically stable and LiF-BeF2 mixtures have low melting points. In addition, 7Li, Be, and F are among the few with low enough thermal neutron capture cross-sections not to poison the fission reactions inside a nuclear fission reactor.Beryllium and fluorine occur only as one isotope, 9Be and 19F respectively. These two, together with 7Li, as well as deuterium, 11B, 15N, 209Bi, and the stable isotopes of C, and O, are the only nuclides with low enough thermal neutron capture cross sections aside from to serve as major constituents of a molten salt breeder reactor fuel.
In conceptualized (hypothetical) nuclear fusion power plants, lithium will be used to produce tritium in magnetically confined reactors using deuterium and tritium as the fuel. Naturally occurring tritium is extremely rare and must be synthetically produced by surrounding the reacting plasma with a 'blanket' containing lithium, where neutrons from the deuterium-tritium reaction in the plasma will fission the lithium to produce more tritium:
Lithium is also used as a source for , or helium nuclei. When 7Li is bombarded by accelerated 8beryllium is formed, which almost immediately undergoes fission to form two alpha particles. This feat, called "splitting the atom" at the time, was the first fully human-made nuclear reaction. It was produced by Cockroft and Ernest Walton in 1932. "'Splitting the Atom': Cockcroft and Walton, 1932: 9. Rays or Particles?" Department of Physics, University of Cambridge Injection of lithium powders is used in fusion reactors to manipulate plasma-material interactions and dissipate energy in the hot thermo-nuclear fusion plasma boundary.
In 2013, the US Government Accountability Office said a shortage of lithium-7 critical to the operation of 65 out of 100 American nuclear reactors "places their ability to continue to provide electricity at some risk." The problem stems from the decline of US nuclear infrastructure. The equipment needed to separate lithium-6 from lithium-7 is mostly a cold war leftover. The US shut down most of this machinery in 1963, when it had a huge surplus of separated lithium, mostly consumed during the twentieth century. The report said it would take five years and $10 million to $12 million to reestablish the ability to separate lithium-6 from lithium-7.
Reactors that use lithium-7 heat water under high pressure and transfer heat through heat exchangers that are prone to corrosion. The reactors use lithium to counteract the corrosive effects of boric acid, which is added to the water to absorb excess neutrons.
Applications
Batteries
In 2021, most lithium is used to make lithium-ion batteries for and .
Ceramics and glass
Lithium oxide is widely used as a flux for processing silica, reducing the melting point and viscosity of the material and leading to ceramic glaze with improved physical properties including low coefficients of thermal expansion. Worldwide, this is one of the largest use for lithium compounds. Glazes containing lithium oxides are used for ovenware. Lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) is generally used in this application because it converts to the oxide upon heating.
Electrical and electronic
Late in the 20th century, lithium became an important component of battery electrolytes and electrodes, because of its high electrode potential. Because of its low atomic mass, it has a high charge- and power-to-weight ratio. A typical lithium-ion battery can generate approximately 3 per cell, compared with 2.1 volts for lead-acid and 1.5 volts for zinc-carbon cell. Lithium-ion batteries, which are rechargeable and have a high energy density, differ from lithium metal batteries, which are disposable (primary cell) batteries with lithium or its compounds as the anode. Other rechargeable batteries that use lithium include the lithium-ion polymer battery, lithium iron phosphate battery, and the nanowire battery.
Lubricating greases
The third most common use of lithium is in greases. Lithium hydroxide is a strong base, and when heated with a fat, it produces a soap, such as lithium stearate from stearic acid. Lithium soap has the ability to thickening agent oils, and it is used to manufacture all-purpose, high-temperature lubricating greases.
Metallurgy
Lithium (e.g. as lithium carbonate) is used as an additive to continuous casting mould flux slags where it increases fluidity, a use which accounts for 5% of global lithium use (2011). Lithium compounds are also used as additives (fluxes) to foundry sand for iron casting to reduce veining.
(2013). 9780124016798, Butterworth-Heinemann. ISBN 9780124016798 of the metal with aluminium, cadmium, copper and manganese are used to make high-performance, low density aircraft parts (see also Al-Li). (1993). 9780871704962, ASM International. ISBN 9780871704962
Silicon nano-welding
Lithium has been found effective in assisting the perfection of silicon nano-welds in electronic components for electric batteries and other devices.
Pyrotechnics
Lithium compounds are used as pyrotechnic colorants and oxidizers in red fireworks and flares. (2025). 9780123526519, Academic Press. ISBN 9780123526519
Air purification
Lithium chloride and lithium bromide are hygroscopic and are used as for gas streams. Lithium hydroxide and lithium peroxide are the salts most commonly used in confined areas, such as aboard spacecraft and , for carbon dioxide removal and air purification. Lithium hydroxide absorbs carbon dioxide from the air by forming lithium carbonate, and is preferred over other alkaline hydroxides for its low weight.
Some of the aforementioned compounds, as well as lithium perchlorate, are used in oxygen candles that supply with oxygen. These can also include small amounts of boron, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, titanium, manganese, and iron.
Optics
Lithium fluoride, artificially grown as crystal, is clear and transparent and often used in specialist optics for infrared, ultraviolet and VUV (vacuum UV) applications. It has one of the lowest refractive index and the furthest transmission range in the deep UV of most common materials. Finely divided lithium fluoride powder has been used for thermoluminescent radiation dosimetry (TLD): when a sample of such is exposed to radiation, it accumulates which, when heated, resolve via a release of bluish light whose intensity is proportional to the absorbed dose, thus allowing this to be quantified. (2025). 9789812381804, World Scientific. ISBN 9789812381804 Lithium fluoride is sometimes used in focal lenses of .
Organic and polymer chemistry
Organolithium compounds are widely used in the production of polymer and fine-chemicals. In the polymer industry, which is the dominant consumer of these reagents, alkyl lithium compounds are /initiators in anionic polymerization of functional group . For the production of fine chemicals, organolithium compounds function as strong bases and as reagents for the formation of carbon-carbon bonds. Organolithium compounds are prepared from lithium metal and .
Military
Metallic lithium and its complex , such as lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4), are used as high-energy additives to rocket propellants. LiAlH4 can also be used by itself as a solid fuel.
Nuclear
Lithium-6 is valued as a source material for tritium production and as a neutron absorber in nuclear fusion. Natural lithium contains about 7.5% lithium-6 from which large amounts of lithium-6 have been produced by isotope separation for use in . Lithium-7 gained interest for use in nuclear reactor .National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Separations Technology and Transmutation Systems (1996). 9780309052269, National Academies Press. ISBN 9780309052269
Medicine
Lithium is useful in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Lithium salts may also be helpful for related diagnoses, such as schizoaffective disorder and cyclic major depressive disorder. The active part of these salts is the lithium ion Li+. Lithium may increase the risk of developing Ebstein's cardiac anomaly in infants born to women who take lithium during the first trimester of pregnancy.
Precautions
Lithium metal is corrosive and requires special handling to avoid skin contact. Breathing lithium dust or lithium compounds (which are often ) initially irritation the human nose and throat, while higher exposure can cause a buildup of fluid in the , leading to pulmonary edema. The metal itself is a handling hazard because contact with moisture produces the caustic lithium hydroxide. Lithium is safely stored in non-reactive compounds such as naphtha.
See also
Notes
External links
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> University of Southampton, Mountbatten Centre for International Studies, Nuclear History Working Paper No5. (PDF) (archived February 26 February 2008)
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