mycotheologist - 10-4-2012 at 10:27
About a year ago I extracted some metallic Li from batteries and stored it in a jar of petroleum ether. I never came across a use for it so it has
just been on a shelf in my lab for a year. Some of the pet. ether evaporated and escaped the jar and a load of the Li has turned white. Is this
lithium oxide? If so, is it worth keeping? As for the rest of the lithium, those Li batteries were very expensive so I want to make use of the Li I
have left. I'm thinking of converting it into a salt but one thats actually useful.
Can anyone recommend a lithium salt that is worth making? I read that LiBr is a good catalyst for some types of organic reactions (can't remember
which ones though). Theres no point wasting elemental Li on something like that though, so I'm thinking of reacting it with ethanol to make lithium
ethoxide. My knowledge of the reactions of metallic alkali metals is pretty limited, thats all I can really think of. If theres a more worthwhile use
for the Li, can you inform me about it.
[Edited on 10-4-2012 by mycotheologist]
elementcollector1 - 10-4-2012 at 19:44
Take one of the white pieces and toss it in water. If it reacts, it's still lithium, and the rest can probably be cleaned by isopropyl or toluene. If
it does nothing, it's a mixture of lithium carbonates and hydroxides, and unless you want to do some serious electrolysis, it's worthless.
As for the salt, I'd recommend using the destroyed lithium (white, oxidised stuff). Dissolve this in water, then add something like elemental bromine
or bromine in water. This will probably release gases like carbon dioxide, hydrogen, etc. When it's done, you can boil off the water and bromine to
get your lithium bromide.
That was theory, though. I have -not- done this before.
AndersHoveland - 10-4-2012 at 21:29
Lithium nitrite is soluble in ethyl ether. These solutions (in the absence of water) can react with bromo- (or iodo-) alkanes to form nitroalkanes,
such as nitromethane.
Chemstudent - 11-4-2012 at 06:47
Would making LiAlH4 be terribly difficult using the lithium strips? This would have a good deal of use in reactions.