In this video, I decided to make some world's useful medication from the craziest source I could find. After some research, I realized that I can make
some lithium carbonate (used in bipolar disorder treatment) by removing lithium metal from the battery and reacting it further.
Unfortunately, there isn't much information available regarding this particular process. This made it quite difficult at some point, but in any case,
all processes appeared to be successful.
I hope you will enjoy watching this video.
Nice video! I'm glad to see I'm not the only Tobu fan. Ashot - 25-7-2016 at 18:06
Hi, thank you so much.
I am glad you liked it.
Yes they do some amazing music and Its a pure luck they have partnership with NoCoryrightsSounds so I could use it in my video)Melgar - 25-7-2016 at 23:42
I'm glad you added the bit about lithium peroxide being most useful for replacing CO2 with oxygen on spacecraft, but I REALLY would have liked to have
seen yields using my "shortcut" synthesis proposal where you leave it out overnight on a plate with a fan on in the room to circulate air.Ashot - 26-7-2016 at 05:38
To be honest, I was planning to do this experiment but unfortunately this was the last battery and also it would make the video even longer so I
decided to skip it. Melgar - 26-7-2016 at 06:32
You could always make a "part II" video. Hell, I'd paypal you $5 for another battery (almost enough for a two-pack, going by walmart's online prices)
if you made that video. Just make sure to explain the reaction properly:
Lithium reacts with water vapor in the air to form hydrogen and lithium hydroxide, which is hygroscopic, meaning it will absorb enough water from the
air to dissolve itself. Carbon dioxide from the air then dissolves in that water, forming carbonic acid, which reacts with the lithium hydroxide to
form lithium carbonate, which is not hygroscopic. Any excess water will evaporate, as the hydroxide is gradually replaced by carbonate.
There's another reaction path with the same result, except that it reacts with oxygen first to produce Li2O, then with water vapor to form LiOH, and
as such, does not produce hydrogen.
Net reaction 1: 2Li + 1H2O + 1CO2 = 1H2 + 1Li2CO3
Net reaction 2: 4Li + 1O2 + 2CO2 = 2Li2CO3
A nice clean stoichiometric reaction.
Too many chemistry videos gloss over parts they don't really understand, which is really annoying, because often that's the exact same part that
I don't understand, and I was watching the video to try and understand a reaction better.
[Edited on 7/26/16 by Melgar]
[Edited on 7/26/16 by Melgar]Ashot - 26-7-2016 at 06:53
Sounds like a good idea for part 2
If I find a way to make a time-lapse video I believe it would look good. Additionally, I may follow the advice of a Reddit forum member, I will
dissolve Li in water and use CO2 from my own breathe blowing it through the tube into the solution. Melgar - 26-7-2016 at 07:35
The thing by blowing into it is really hard to see, because the bubbles stir up the water too much. Additionally, CO2 doesn't dissolve in water
instantly, and your breath is only like 5% CO2 anyway. You'll just see really frothy water for a while, and then try and judge whether the amount of
crystals has increased or not, even though they'll all be scattered around in different parts of the vessel than before.
I really like the time-lapse idea over the course of a few hours or however long it takes to stop reacting in air. It's the perfect type of reaction
for a time-lapse video too, since there will be no motion at all except for the reaction. There's also several parts to the reaction: the reaction to
form the oxide/hydroxide, the absorption and solvation of the LiOH in condensed water vapor, the absorption of CO2, and the evaporation of the water.
The reactions are progressively slower, so you may want to speed it up at different points.Ashot - 26-7-2016 at 08:23
I believe at first I can reduce the air movement and increase air humidity, to speed up the transformation of lithium to hydroxide.
However, I have never done a time-lapse video so I will see if it would even be possible with my camera.
The batteries will not arrive until next week so I have plenty of time to research. CuReUS - 26-7-2016 at 19:57
nice video and even nicer music
What I don't understand is why did you make lithium peroxide when you could have directly reacted LiOH with CO2 http://www.google.co.in/patents/US3007771
Quote:
Solutions containing about 2% of lithium hydroxide are best treated with carbon dioxide at a temperature ci about 66 C. More concentrated solutions
containing say 4% of lithium hydroxide may be precipitated at room temperature.
Thanks for your positive comment.
I know it could be made directly from hydroxide, I even mentioned this in the video. To make it even easier I could just buy lithium carbonate from
ebay.
I thought it would be a good idea to make peroxide in this video as it has all these interesting and useful properties.
Transformation of AA battery to medication (part 2)
Ashot - 2-8-2016 at 14:39
As I promised to the member of this forum "Melgar" I uploaded part 2 of my last video.
In this video, I am letting nature do the job by exposing lithium metal to the air. I have done some time-lapse clips of the reaction, so I hope you
will enjoy watching the demonstration.
Also, at the end of this video, I am demonstrating why it is dangerous to react lithium with water at large quantities.
Also, I found the way to improve video quality to HD 1080p.
Let me know what you guys think.
Thanks
