Chemical Element: lithium
(Modern Latin: chemical element; from Greek, lithos, "stone, stony"; metal)
Chemical-Element Information
Symbol: LiAtomic number: 3
Year discovered: 1817
Discovered by: Johan August Arfvedson (1792-1841), a Swedish chemist from Stockholm.
- The mineral petalite was discovered by the Brazilian scientist José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva towards the end of the 18th century while visiting Sweden.
- Lithium was discovered by Johan August Arfvedson in 1817 during an analysis of petalite ore, an ore now recognized to be taken from the Swedish island of Utö.
- Arfvedson subsequently discovered lithium in other minerals (spodumene and lepidolite) containing lithium.
- C. G. Gmelin observed, in 1818, that lithium salts result in flames that are a bright red color.
- Neither Gmelin nor Arfvedson were able to isolate the element itself from lithium salts, for example by heating the oxide with iron or carbon.
- The first isolation of elemental lithium was achieved later by W. T. Brande and Sir Humphrey Davy by the electrolysis of lithium oxide.
- In 1855, Robert Bunsen and A. Mattiessen isolated larger quantities of the metal by electrolysis of lithium chloride.
- In 1923, the first commercial production of lithium metal was achieved by Metallgesellschaft AG in Germany using the electrolysis of a molten mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.
- A freshly cut lithium chunk is silvery, but it tarnishes in a minute or so in air resulting in a grey surface.
- It is used in combination with aluminium and magnesium for light-weight alloys, and is also used in batteries, some greases, some glasses, and in medicine.
- It has been used as a degasifier in the production of high-conductivity copper and bronze castings and is also used in the synthesis of Vitamin A.
- Lithium compounds are used in lubricants and ceramics, which consume the largest quantities, and in air conditioning, welding, and brazing.
Name in other languages:
French: lithium
German: Lithium
Italian: litio
Spanish: litio
Information about other elements may be seen at this Chemical Elements List.
A special unit about words that include chemo-, chem- may be seen here.
One important use of lithium may be seen at this Lithium for battery-driven cars page.