Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Reacting Lithium

jkennedy1996 - 19-1-2014 at 04:13

Heyy everyone, first post here, I like to get Li out of lithium batteries, and I was aspiring to reacting it with something more interesting than water. I was thinking iodine. Would Betadine (Providone-iodine 10% {1% available} iodine) work? Will I need to distill it? How do I do that properly? Please be aware that I have a very limited budget.

[Edited on 19-1-2014 by jkennedy1996]

Mailinmypocket - 19-1-2014 at 04:44

Search the forum, this has been discussed in multiple threads. I have no clue why you would distill the stuff.

Look here:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1202

Here:
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=1869

Here:
Link and type "sciencemadness povidone iodine"

Welcome to the forum!

Fantasma4500 - 19-1-2014 at 05:57

Methanol

gives lithium methoxide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7M-Nf6cYwY

alexleyenda - 19-1-2014 at 11:04

Quote: Originally posted by jkennedy1996  
Heyy everyone, first post here, I like to get Li out of lithium batteries, and I was aspiring to reacting it with something more interesting than water. I was thinking iodine. Would Betadine (Providone-iodine 10% {1% available} iodine) work? Will I need to distill it? How do I do that properly? Please be aware that I have a very limited budget.

[Edited on 19-1-2014 by jkennedy1996]


You don't look like you have the material/experience to do this, but who knows --> You could react it with chlorine. The reaction is nice and it gives LiCl, a salt which turns fames red.

thebean - 19-1-2014 at 14:13

Quote: Originally posted by Antiswat  
Methanol


While I do think that lithium methoxide is an interesting compound and a simple, entertaining synthesis I am a little worried about the poster's safety. Lithium methoxide is rather poisonous if I remember correctly and I don't think that he is very experienced (I mean no offense, I'm still pretty new). I'd start of with something a little less toxic. Lithium and iodine would be a pretty cool reaction but you will need elemental iodine, you cannot use povidone iodine. Here is a great video on isolation of iodine from tincture. Thisis a great video on preparation of iodine from povidone. Please be safe!

Zyklon-A - 19-1-2014 at 14:31

You could react it with hydrochloric acid, if you have it, it would be a lot faster than water, and may catch fire, although I'm not sure.
Even vinegar would be much more reactive.

[Edited on 19-1-2014 by Zyklonb]

bismuthate - 19-1-2014 at 15:52

When I react it with HCl it never catches fire. It's actualy rather dissapointing.

alexleyenda - 19-1-2014 at 17:03

I did react Lithium with 27% HCl, in my test it tends to cath fire and make a little explosion most of the time. Quite nice. It is not faster, except if it explodes. I use 0,8 g of lithium (normal battery lithium sheet) and around 20-30 mL of HCl. Using too much is much less efficient, I guess it absorbs the heat from the reaction so the lithium does not catch fire. Once again, this makes LiCl, you can boil down the solution to get it.

By the way, boiling it releases the HCl gas diluted in water (of course) so be careful.

[Edited on 20-1-2014 by alexleyenda]

vmelkon - 21-1-2014 at 14:24

Quote: Originally posted by jkennedy1996  
Heyy everyone, first post here, I like to get Li out of lithium batteries, and I was aspiring to reacting it with something more interesting than water. I was thinking iodine. Would Betadine (Providone-iodine 10% {1% available} iodine) work? Will I need to distill it? How do I do that properly? Please be aware that I have a very limited budget.

[Edited on 19-1-2014 by jkennedy1996]


Think about it. What is a tincture?
It is a mix of ethanol and water. If you drop in lithium, it is going to react with the water mostly. You get very little LiI.

thebean - 21-1-2014 at 16:20

I'd be very careful with lithium in HCl. I've had good sized explosions before, luckily that was the intention so I did it in a controlled environment in a disposable container.

Zyklon-A - 21-1-2014 at 18:33

For a faster way to react Li with HCl, I'd drop HCl on the Li, not vice versa, it should react much faster that way.

See this.