INSIDE LITHIUM

Lithium (from Greek: λίθος, translit. lithos, lit. 'stone') is a chemical element with symbol Li and atomic number 3. 

It is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal. Under standard conditions, it is the lightest metal and the lightest solid element. Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive an

d flammable, and is stored in mineral oil. When cut open, it exhibits a metallic luster, but moist air corrodes it quickly to a dull silvery gray, then black tarnish. It never occurs freely in nature, but only in (usually ionic) compounds, such as pegmatitic minerals which were once the main source of lithium. Due to its solubility as an ion, it is present in ocean water and is commonly obtained from brines.

Lithium metal is isolated electrolytically from a mixture of lithium chloride and potassium chloride.

The nucleus of the lithium atom verges on instability, since the two stable lithium isotopes found in nature have among the lowest binding energies per nucleon of all stable nuclides. Because of its relative nuclear instability, lithium is less common in the solar system than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements even though its nuclei are very light: it is an exception to the trend that heavier nuclei are less common.

Lithium and its compounds have several industrial applications, including heat-resistant glass and ceramics, lithium grease lubricants, flux additives for iron, steel and aluminium production, lithium batteries, and lithium-ion batteries. These uses consume more than three quarters of lithium production.

Lithium is present in biological systems in trace amounts; its functions are uncertain. Lithium salts have proven to be useful as a mood-stabilizing drug in the treatment of bipolar disorder in humans.

Atomic Properties

---

1. Like the other alkali metals, lithium has a single valence electron that is easily given up to form a cation.

2. Because of property 1 above, lithium is a good conductor of heat and electricity as well as a highly reactive element, though it is the least reactive of the alkali metals.

3. Lithium's low reactivity is due to the proximity of its valence electron to its nucleus (the remaining two electrons are in the 1s orbital, much lower in energy, and do not participate in chemical bonds).

Physical  Properties

---

Lithium metal is soft enough to be cut with a knife. When cut, it possesses a silvery-white color that quickly changes to gray as it oxidizes to lithium oxide.

While it has one of the lowest melting points among all metals (180 °C), it has the highest melting and boiling points of the alkali metals.

Lithium has a very low density (0.534 g/cm3), comparable with pine wood. It is the least dense of all elements that are solids at room temperature; the next lightest solid element (potassium, at 0.862 g/cm3) is more than 60% denser.

Furthermore, apart from helium and hydrogen, it is less dense than any liquid element, being only two thirds as dense as liquid nitrogen (0.808 g/cm3).

Lithium can float on the lightest hydrocarbon oils and is one of only three metals that can float on water, the other two being sodium and potassium.

Lithium's coefficient of thermal expansion is twice that of aluminium and almost four times that of iron.[7] Lithium is superconductive below 400 μK at standard pressure and at higher temperatures (more than 9 K) at very high pressures (>20 GPa). At temperatures below 70 K, lithium, like sodium, undergoes diffusionless phase change transformations. At 4.2 K it has a rhombohedral crystal system (with a nine-layer repeat spacing); at higher temperatures it transforms to face-centered cubic and then body-centered cubic. At liquid-helium temperatures (4 K) the rhombohedral structure is prevalent. Multiple allotropic forms have been identified for lithium at high pressures.

Lithium has a mass specific heat capacity of 3.58 kilojoules per kilogram-kelvin, the highest of all solids. Because of this, lithium metal is often used in coolants for heat transfer applications

Chemistry and compounds

---

Lithium reacts with water easily, but with noticeably less vigor than other alkali metals.

The reaction forms hydrogen gas and lithium hydroxide in aqueous solution. Because of its reactivity with water, lithium is usually stored in a hydrocarbon sealant, often petroleum jelly.

Though the heavier alkali metals can be stored in more dense substances, such as mineral oil, lithium is not dense enough to be fully submerged in these liquids. In moist air, lithium rapidly tarnishes to form a black coating of lithium hydroxide (LiOH and LiOH·H2O), lithium nitride (Li3N) and lithium carbonate (Li2CO3, the result of a secondary reaction between LiOH and CO2).

When placed over a flame, lithium compounds give off a striking crimson color, but when it burns strongly the flame becomes a brilliant silver. Lithium will ignite and burn in oxygen when exposed to water or water vapors.[16] Lithium is flammable, and it is potentially explosive when exposed to air and especially to water, though less than the other alkali metals. The lithium-water reaction at normal temperatures is brisk but nonviolent because the hydrogen produced does not ignite on its own.

 As with all alkali metals, lithium fires are difficult to extinguish, requiring dry powder fire extinguishers (Class D type). Lithium is one of the few metals that react with nitrogen under normal conditions.

Lithium has a diagonal relationship with magnesium, an element of similar atomic and ionic radius. Chemical resemblances between the two metals include the formation of a nitride by reaction with N2, the formation of an oxide (Li2O) and peroxide (Li2O2) when burnt in O2, salts with similar solubilities, and thermal instability of the carbonates and nitrides.Lithium metal reacts with hydrogen gas at high temperatures to produce lithium hydride (LiH).

Other known binary compounds include halides (LiF, LiCl, LiBr, LiI), sulfide (Li2S), superoxide (LiO2), and carbide (Li2C2). Many other inorganic compounds are known in which lithium combines with anions to form salts: borates, amides, carbonate, nitrate, or borohydride (LiBH4). Lithium aluminium hydride (LiAlH4) is commonly used as a reducing agent in organic synthesis.

Multiple organolithium reagents are known in which there is a direct bond between carbon and lithium atoms, effectively creating a carbanion. These are extremely powerful bases and nucleophiles. In many of these organolithium compounds, the lithium ions tend to aggregate into high-symmetry clusters by themselves, which is relatively common for alkali cations.

 LiHe, a very weakly interacting van der Waals compound, has been detected at very low temperatures.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring lithium is composed of two stable isotopes, 6Li and 7Li, the latter being the more abundant (92.5% natural abundance).

 Both natural isotopes have anomalously low nuclear binding energy per nucleon (compared to the neighboring elements on the periodic table, helium and beryllium); lithium is the only low numbered element that can produce net energy through nuclear fission. The two lithium nuclei have lower binding energies per nucleon than any other stable nuclides other than deuterium and helium-3. As a result of this, though very light in atomic weight, lithium is less common in the Solar System than 25 of the first 32 chemical elements.[2] Seven radioisotopes have been characterized, the most stable being 8Li with a half-life of 838 ms and 9Li with a half-life of 178 ms. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are shorter than 8.6 ms. The shortest-lived isotope of lithium is 4Li, which decays through proton emission and has a half-life of 7.6 × 10−23 s.

7Li is one of the primordial elements (or, more properly, primordial nuclides) produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis. A small amount of both 6Li and 7Li are produced in stars, but are thought to be "burned" as fast as produced.

 Additional small amounts of lithium of both 6Li and 7Li may be generated from solar wind, cosmic rays hitting heavier atoms, and from early solar system 7Be and 10Be radioactive decay.

While lithium is created in stars during stellar nucleosynthesis, it is further burned. 7Li can also be generated in carbon stars.

Lithium isotopes fractionate substantially during a wide variety of natural processes, including mineral formation (chemical precipitation), metabolism, and ion exchange. Lithium ions substitute for magnesium and iron in octahedral sites in clay minerals, where 6Li is preferred to 7Li, resulting in enrichment of the light isotope in processes of hyperfiltration and rock alteration. The exotic 11Li is known to exhibit a nuclear halo. The process known as laser isotope separation can be used to separate lithium isotopes, in particular 7Li from 6Li.

Nuclear weapons manufacture and other nuclear physics applications are a major source of artificial lithium fractionation, with the light isotope 6Li being retained by industry and military stockpiles to such an extent that it has caused slight but measurable change in the 6Li to 7Li ratios in natural sources, such as rivers. This has led to unusual uncertainty in the standardized atomic weight of lithium, since this quantity depends on the natural abundance ratios of these naturally-occurring stable lithium isotopes, as they are available in commercial lithium mineral sources.

Both stable isotopes of lithium can be laser cooled and were used to produce the first quantum degenerate Bose-Fermi mixture

For occurrence continue  to wikipedia