Relax...we're lithium powered

Let’s take a look at LITHIUM but first of all make sure you find it on the Periodic Table of Elements – that brilliant arrangement by Dimitri Mendeleev and Julius Meyer that they taught us about in college.

Lithium is the lightest metal, first discovered in petalite by Swedish chemist Johann August Arfwedson in 1817. It is even the lightest solid element - half the weight of water and even lighter than carbon, nitrogen and oxygen! It is so reactive that it does not occur naturally despite comprising 0.002% of Earth's crust and makes for a powerful source of energy (600-2000 watt hours per kg) in batteries, unfortunately sensitive to excess current flow and air pressure changes. No wonder lithium batteries are used in computers, smart phones, electric cars…

What about aircraft?  The stairway says it all: "Next time...Relax (before you fly)" as it assists passengers off this Boeing 787 Dreamliner after its emergency landing with burning lithium-ion batteries. Fortunately there have been no mid-air catastrophes and Boeing must now find out how to control volatile batteries that start melting at only 135 degrees C and releasing oxygen at 200 degrees.

So if Lithium doesn’t occur outside a factory, where do they find it? 
70% of the world’s deposits are believed to be in South America’s lithium chloride, with 50% in Bolivia’s Salar De Uyuni – a 10 billion ton salt lake over 10,580 square kilometres and 3,656 metres above sea level.                            

With lithium used in radiation detection, nuclear fusion, batteries, ceramics,                       enamels, optics glass, lubricants, rubber, dyestuffs, paint, dehumidifiers, CO2 scrubbers, welding flux, bipolar medication….and even backyard ‘ice’ labs (for dreamliners) – is it any wonder these deposits are being eyed off!

Just by the way, who designed elements like lithium in the first place, that Mendeleev & Meyer were able to neatly table for us?

Acknowledgements:

upi.com                                                                                        

dailymail.com                                                                      

foreignpolicy.com                                                                               

World Book 2005                                                                                       

mpower.com

Photo credit: smh.com.au