From cellphones to laptops to electric vehicles, lithium makes up an increasingly important part of the technologies used in the daily lives of people around the world.
Certainly, lithium has an interesting history. In 1817, Johann Arfwedson discovered a soft, silver-white metal while working in a laboratory under his mentor in Sweden. The mentor, chemist Jöns Berzelius, named it after the Greek word for stone, “lithos.” Today, that alkali metal is known as lithium.
By the 1940s, people began using lithium to treat what was at the time considered ‘mania.’ Over 70 years later, such symptoms are now traditionally labeled as bipolar disorder or manic depression, but lithium is still one of the most common elements used to treat these mood disorders. Researchers also believe it was used for medicinal purposes as many as 1,800 years ago.
Along with its role in the pharmaceutical industry, lithium is primarily used in batteries as well as heat-resistant glass and ceramics. The element’s electrochemical potential makes it useful for battery nodes, and it has the ability to decrease the melting temperature of glass because of its high specific heat.
Overall, demand for lithium from the battery sector is expected to continue to rise in coming years.
Lithium can be found in igneous rocks and evaporated brines. Australia, Chile and China are currently the three largest producers of the metal in the world, though reports show Bolivia has the largest available reserve base, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Investing in lithium
Currently, lithium is experiencing fairly high demand. Lithium batteries are more energy efficient than traditional nickel-metal hydride batteries, so they are extremely desirable throughout economic sectors such as the automobile and electronics industries…
Source: Lithium Investing News – Investing News Network