Lithium is one of the lightest metals
One of the lightest known metals
in the universe is lithium; where its atomic number is only 3; Each of its
atoms contains three protons in its nucleus. Lithium is the first alkali metal
in the order of the metals, and it is located in the first group of the
periodic table, and its color is silvery-white, and it is very soft and light
to a large degree, and therefore melts at very low temperatures, and many of
its derivatives and compounds are produced in large quantities to serve
commercial purposes, It is one of the lightest solid-state elements in the
periodic table.
Cosmologists believe that lithium
was one of the three basic elements that were present in the universe when it
was born 13.7 billion years ago; At the time, the so-called Big Bang occurred,
which led to filling the universe with large amounts of hot hydrogen and helium
gases, in addition to a small percentage of lithium molecules.
Lithium production
Lithium can be obtained from a
solution of salt in water, and it is found in the form of natural salts in
mineral springs, and it is present in sea water at the rate of one molecule for
every ten million molecules. It is difficult to find free lithium in nature,
due to its great chemical activity; It reacts quickly, and when exposed to
atmospheric air, it quickly reacts with the nitrogen in the air, turning
directly into lithium nitride, or reacting with other materials. Lithium makes
up only 0.0007% of the metal content in the Earth's crust.
Lithium is a natural metal present
in small quantities in plants, and for this reason, it is transferred from them
continuously to the bodies of animals and then to the human body as well, and
it is not toxic to living organisms in particular, but eating a very large
amount of it may cause death, and it is common to give this metal Deliberately
targeting people with many mental illnesses, in particular; It has proven very
successful in this regard.
There was commercial use of
lithium, but until the nineties of the twentieth century its commercial
production in large quantities was almost limited to the United States of
America; Where it was extracted from mineral deposits and sold, but with the
beginning of the twenty-first century many countries became able to compete in
the market for lithium production; Most of its exports come from countries, the
most important of which are Australia, Chile, and Portugal, and the territory
of Bolivia alone contains half of the world's reserves of this mineral, but it
is not produced in large quantities. It is possible to add hydrochloric acid to
lithium to produce a secondary compound, lithium chloride.
The history of lithium
The name of the mineral lithium
comes from the Greek word “lithos”, which means “stone” or “rock”, and the
reason for deriving the name of the mineral from the word is that it is present
in very small quantities in almost all types of rocks. This element was
discovered by the Swedish scientist Johan August Arvidsson in 1817 while
studying the mineral petalite, and the mineral petalite was discovered by a
Brazilian naturalist named Jozé Bonifácio (English: Jozé Bonifácio) in the
nineties of the eighteenth century, and it has a color ranging from white to
gray And that it glows with a crimson light when thrown into fire, and Johann
Arvidson realized in 1817 that this mineral contained a previously unknown
chemical element.
Arvidson tried hard to separate
this element from the rest of the components of the mineral petalite, but he
failed in that, and he could only separate one of the salts with which lithium
was mixed, yet the discovery is attributed to him, and in fact he was the first
chemist who succeeded in isolating lithium from any other chemical element is
Britain's Robert Bunsen; In 1855, he was able to transmit an electric current
in a lithium chloride mixture to separate the chlorine molecules from the
lithium.
Uses of lithium metal
1- Industrial uses
Lithium has entered some modern
industries; It is used in the manufacture of some types of dry disc batteries,
such as watch batteries. The lithium battery has a very record life when
compared to ordinary batteries; It has a lifespan of about four to ten times
that of a normal steel battery. In fact, lithium-ion batteries are a relatively
recent invention that appeared in the 1980s, and they have become widely
accepted and well-researched for their use in powering small electronic
machines.
Lithium batteries became famous at
the beginning of the twenty-first century for their ability to start catastrophic
fires when laptop batteries made of this element were charged for too long, but
the chemical equation for lithium batteries has since been changed to make them
safer.
The lithium element is used in the
production of what is called lithium grease or lithium soap; When mixed with
oil, it becomes able to lubricate all kinds of high-temperature machines,
including aircraft engines and other transportation and communication
mechanisms at the beginning of the twentieth century, and one of its secondary
compounds, lithium chloride, is also used to absorb carbon dioxide inside
shuttles and spacecraft, and this can also be mixed with oil. Metal with
aluminium, copper and manganese to make a durable mixture for airframes.
Lithium compounds are also used in the manufacture of special types of
high-strength glass and ceramics.
2- Medicinal uses
Lithium is combined with many
types of enzymes, vitamins, hormones, and medications. This is because of its
ability to participate in many chemical reactions in the human body, and it is
popular for its use in treatment and medical fields. Lithium is used in
particular in the treatment of mental illnesses, especially bipolar disorder,
chronic depression, and schizophrenia. It can also be used in the treatment of
blood diseases such as anemia and its cells, as well as digestive problems,
sometimes headaches, alcoholism, and liver diseases.
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