003 Lithium
003 Lithium
001 Hydrogen002 Helium003 Lithium004 Beryllium005 Boron001 Hydrogen003 Lithium011 Sodium019 Potassium037 Rubidium055 Cesium087 Francium
Lithium is an alkali metal, and like all the other alkali metals, it reacts spontaneously with water, liberating hydrogen gas. The farther down you go in the periodic table, the more reactive the alkali metals become, and as the uppermost one lithium is the least reactive. But it's still a fairly vigorous reaction, and lithium can catch fire spontaneously on a humid day (click the story book icon by the battery sample for more about this).
Lithium is amazingly light, only half the density of water. It would be a great metal for making airplanes out of if it weren't so soft and didn't explode on rainy days. Instead it's used as a medication for mood disorders, because dissolved as lithium ions, it moderates nerve impulses in a way that, for poorly understood reasons, moderates mood swings (see the pills below for more on this).
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003.1
StoryLong-life AA battery.
Initially only used in fancy camera batteries, lithium is now available in AA and 9V batteries for use in things like smoke detectors and digital cameras. They are still (2002) much more expensive than regular batteries, but last a lot longer.
The great thing about disposable lithium cells is that the lithium exists in the form of a foil, not some kind of powder you can't separate: Click the story book icon for this sample to read all about how to get the foil out.
See the next sample for something you could do with it.
Source: Radio Shack
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 7 August, 2002
Price: $3
Size: 2"
Purity: >95%
003.2
3DLithium oxide crystals.
If you had some thin lithium foil (see above) what would you do with it? I thought that maybe I could melt it into a lump, if I bathed the crucible in helium from a small balloon-filling tank (to prevent rapid oxidation) as I heated it from below. I was wrong.
Even with the helium shield gas, the lithium ignited almost immediately, and then proceeded to burn in much the same way lump magnesium does, only much faster (especially after I turned off the helium). This probably means I wasn't getting enough helium around the crucible, and some moist air was working its way in. Or maybe my helium, which just came from a disposable balloon filling tank, contained an oxygen impurity, which is not at all unlikely. Another possibility is that there was chemical contamination from the battery that permitted combustion.

I decided to change plans and just let a bigger piece of it (folded up tightly into a lump) burn itself out in the crucible. It lit instantly with a propane torch and burned quite dramatically, and very, very hotly. It actually cracked the tiny thimble-sized ceramic crucible I had it in. (Mind you, this is (was) a high-temperature ceramic crucible intended for burning and melting things in. It's not supposed to crack just because you make it hot.)

The explanation for this was kindly provided by reader Yehoshua Sivan from Israel, who wrote as follows:
About 27 years ago I thought I would melt lithium in a ceramic crucible, and then suck it up into a glass tube (using a propipet, not my mouth!), to preserve a specimen, as I had already done with sodium and potassium [incidentally the specimens prepared then are as shiny today as when prepared originally; the oxide at the open ends of the tube acts as a plug preventing further oxidation, and the tube is kept in paraffin oil anyway]. Well, the lithium ignited, I beat a hasty retreat and watched the reaction through the crack in the door, and after some kind of explosion a piece of burning lithium fell on the brand new asbestos table (yes, they were still fitting asbestos tables then), where it also exploded, leaving a hole in the surface. I subsequently explained to my colleagues that now the table really looked as if it belonged to a chemistry laboratory.

I thought then, and I see no reason to think otherwise now, that this was a simple oxidation-reduction reaction, in which the lithium "steals" the oxygen from the silicon dioxide and other oxides in the ceramic (and in the asbestos). The reaction is analogous to the well known magnesium-sand reaction, or to the formation of a black silicon mark on test-tubes in which Mg or Na has been burned (e.g. in the classic magnesium burning in steam reaction, or when I burn sodium in a flow of chlorine).
Sounds very familiar. This being a small world, I suppose it should come as no surprise to anyone that Yehoshua has been proof-reading the Hebrew translation of Uncle Tungsten, whose author Oliver Sacks recently came to visit me, and that Sacks' mother was Yehoshua's mother's family doctor. Nope, doesn't surprise me at all.

Yehoshua also pointed out two interesting articles about the great lithium fire of 1998, which occurred at a chemical waste dump in Israel: Article 1, article 2.

Source: Radio Shack
Contributor: Theodore Gray
Acquired: 12 August, 2002
Price: $3
Size: 1"
Purity: <50%
003.3
Lumps.
The irritating thing about storing lithium is that it floats on the oil. That means unless you completely fill the jar, there's always a bit poking out above the oil, and that part starts oxidizing. The effect of which you can clearly see in the picture of this sample.

Click the source link for an interesting story about where this sample came from.
Source: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve
Contributor: Tryggvi Emilsson and Timothy Brumleve
Acquired: 6 September, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.75"
Purity: >99%
003.4
Pills for mood disorders.
Lithium, just plain lithium (as a salt), has been used for decades as a treatment for manic-depressive disorders and other illnesses that effect the affect. There aren't very many elements that are used as medical treatments (other than as nutritional supplements like iron and calcium). Two examples, with links to articles about their uses, are carbon (legitimate) and phosphorous (historical). Although the pills actually contain a lithium salt (lithium carbonate), it is the simple lithium that does the work. One theory is that because it is in the same column in the periodic table as sodium and potassium (all are alkali metals), it is able to stand in for them in their important role in the transmission of nerve impulses. By modifying in some poorly understood way how nerve signals propagate, lithium just happens to calm mood swings.

An element is certainly a rather blunt instrument compared to, say, a carefully crafted organic molecule, but if it does the job, who's to complain?

The source of this sample, Raph Levien, is as fascinated as I am by the fact that plain lithium is still a popular mood-stabilizing medication. A family member of his switched from lithium to a different medication around the same time he discovered my Periodic Table, so naturally he thought of contributing the leftover pills to the table. (There's a lesson here for anyone reading this who has a spare element handy....)

I was a bit surprised at how many pills he sent, especially after reading that as few as 20 can be fatal. (The toxic dose is very close to the therapeutic dose, and since these pills are given to people who are, well, depressed, you can imagine that some care has to be take to avoid suicide attempts!) I've sealed a sub-lethal dose in a plastic display container and locked the rest up for safekeeping.

Raph also supplied the following interesting URLs about lithium as a medication:
jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v281n24/ffull/jmn0623-1.html
anil299.tripod.com/vol_001_no_002/pg001.html
www.adelaideoldterraces.com.au/aap/

The purity (weight-percent lithium) of the sample was easy to calculate (especially after Yehoshua Sivan pointed out the error in my first attempt). The pills weigh 0.4163g each and are clearly labeled as containing 300mg (0.3g) of lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) each. Multiply this ratio by the ratio of twice the atomic weight of lithium to the molecular weight of lithium carbonate and you learn that the pills are about 13.6% elemental lithium.

Source: Raph Levien
Contributor: Raph Levien
Acquired: 30 December, 2002
Price: Donated
Size: 0.15"
Purity: 13.6%
003.5
Sample from the Red Green and Blue Company Element Set.
The Red Green and Blue company in England sells a very nice element collection in several versions. Max Whitby, the director of the company, very kindly donated a complete set to the periodic table table.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description or the company's website which includes many photographs and pricing details. I have two photographs of each sample from the set: One taken by me and one from the company. You can see photographs of all the samples displayed in a periodic table format: my pictures or their pictures. Or you can see both side-by-side with bigger pictures in numerical order.

For most sample from this set I have my own picture on the left and the one from the company here, but I haven't taken a picture of this sample yet so there's only one picture.

Source: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Contributor: Max Whitby of The Red Green & Blue Company
Acquired: 25 January, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: 99.4%
003.6
Sample from the Everest Element Set.
Up until the early 1990's a company in Russia sold a periodic table collection with element samples. At some point their American distributor sold off the remaining stock to a man who is now selling them on eBay. The samples (excepted gasses) weight about 0.25 grams each, and the whole set comes in a very nice wooden box with a printed periodic table in the lid.

To learn more about the set you can visit my page about element collecting for a general description and information about how to buy one, or you can see photographs of all the samples from the set displayed on my website in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.

Source: Rob Accurso
Contributor: Rob Accurso
Acquired: 7 February, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 0.2"
Purity: >99%
Lepidolite
3DLepidolite from Jensan Set.
This sample represents lithium in the "The Grand Tour of the Periodic Table" mineral collection from Jensan Scientifics. Visit my page about element collecting for a general description, or see photographs of all the samples from the set in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Jensan Scientifics
Contributor: Jensan Scientifics
Acquired: 17 March, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Composition: K(Li,Al)3(Si,Al)4O10(F,OH)2
Triphylite
3DTriphylite from Jensan Set.
This sample represents phosphorous in the "The Grand Tour of the Periodic Table" mineral collection from Jensan Scientifics. Visit my page about element collecting for a general description, or see photographs of all the samples from the set in a periodic table layout or with bigger pictures in numerical order.
Source: Jensan Scientifics
Contributor: Jensan Scientifics
Acquired: 17 March, 2003
Price: Donated
Size: 1"
Composition: LiFePO4