deltaH
Dangerous source of unreferenced speculation
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Mood: Heavily protonated
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Stabilised lithium powder
Apparently FMC Lithium manufacture a stabilised lithium powder product called Lectro max powder 100. It's a fine lithium powder that is air stable and
relatively safe to handle.
I think it's passivated with a surface film of lithium carbonate and oleate because the MSDS says it contains a small amount of each 
Anyhow, I hope stabilised lithium powders become mainstream soon because I think it would open up a wealth of possibilities 
Lithium thermites anyone? 
Attached, the product datasheet and MSDS
Attachment: Stabilised lithium powder.pdf (405kB)
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Attachment: Stabilised lithium powder MSDS.pdf (209kB)
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[Edited on 4-5-2014 by deltaH]
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Zyklon-A
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Sounds fun, but it really won't be very fast/reactive/explosive, formation of lithium oxide isn't nearly as energetic as the formation of Al/Mg oxide.
Chlorothermal "thermite" reactions with Li would probably be much faster - "Fluorothemal" thermite reactions indeed would be scary.
Li-F+ is one of the strongest bonds there are.
[Edited on 4-5-2014 by Zyklonb]
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deltaH
Dangerous source of unreferenced speculation
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| Quote: | | but it really won't be very fast/reactive/explosive, formation of lithium oxide isn't nearly as energetic as the formation of Al/Mg oxide.
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Are you sure about that? I calculate for an aluminium|ferric oxide thermite, a heat of reaction of 4MJ/kg of thermite mix, while for a lithium|ferric
oxide thermite, I calculate 4.8MJ/kg of thermite mix.
Plus lithium vaporises at 1330°C, so it can advance rapidly through unignited thermite.
Put these together and I would guess that lithium thermites would be vicious and explosive if confined?
[Edited on 4-5-2014 by deltaH]
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Zyklon-A
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Really? I guess I should have calculated it rather than assumed. I must have been thing about sodium...
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