Maybe Tesla should start mining lithium itself, sighed Tesla boss Elon Musk in april. The price of lithium has risen to “insane levels” (dixit Musk) this year: from about $17,000 per tonne in 2021 to $78,000 today. It is not a scarce element, but winning it is rather laborious. This slow process can insane cannot keep up with the demand for electric cars – an electric car contains about 10 kilos of lithium, it is practically a lithium battery on wheels – hence the exorbitant prices.
Battery makers think lithium is a great element. It is small, light and has a high energy density. Perfect for phones, cars and all other mobile applications.
In the periodic table, lithium is in third place, after hydrogen and helium. It is shiny gray and soft and it reacts easily with oxygen, nitrogen and water, among other things. It was discovered in 1817 on the Norwegian island of Utö by Johan Afwerdson, who isolated the salt lithium hydroxide from the mineral petalite. Thanks to the discovery in stone, the name of the element is derived from the Greek word for stone: lithos.
Because it is so reactive, it does not occur in pure metal form, but as a mineral in rocks (important extraction sites are in Australia and China), and in salts (a lot of lithium is also extracted from salt lakes in Chile). After his discovery, Afwerdson also tried to separate the pure element from the salt, but was unsuccessful. A few years later, in 1821, Thomas Brande succeeded, by applying electrolysis to lithium oxide. In the years that followed, the process for isolating lithium has improved, but many steps still have to be taken to obtain pure lithium.
One of the other known uses of lithium was used well before the discovery of the element. Those suffering from mania were given in Rome in the second century BC. of the physician Seranus Ephesios advice: “Utendum quoque naturalibus aquis, ut sunt nitrosae”, which means as much as: natural waters such as alkaline springs should be used.
With today’s knowledge, these ‘natural waters’ appear to contain lithium. Not only in the second century BC. was recommended for use in mental illness. Over the centuries it was a well-known advice that was used in several countries. Some European sources became famous for it.
It was not until 1949 that lithium entered modern pharmacology as a remedy for mania and depression. Psychiatrist John Cade, an Australian, published about ten manic patients he had given lithium salts. The condition of all ten improved. He had already tested a hypothesis about this a few years earlier. At the time, he wrote about generally hyperactive guinea pigs that suddenly became lethargic after administration of lithium carbonate.
It has since been widely demonstrated that it works, it influences signal transmission in the brain. But how exactly, that is still not completely clear. Incidentally, lithium is not undisputed, too much gives serious toxic side effects. That is why lithium was banned for a while, strikingly enough that was also around the time that Cade showed its positive effect.