Get Lithium Metal From an Energizer Battery

Intro: Get Lithium Metal From an Energizer Battery

We show you how to get Lithium Metal from an Energizer Ultimate Lithium battery.

There are a great many types of lithium batteries and the particular chemistry of interest is "lithium iron disulfide" batteries which contain pure lithium metal and less toxic electrolyte than other batteries. Lithium ion batteries do not contain lithium metal (just lithium ions) and other pure metal lithium batteries often contain incredibly toxic electrolyte that make them too dangerous for the average person to safely open.

It just so happens that the popular Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries are based on lithium iron disulfide chemistry making them the ideal choice for the home chemist to obtain lithium.

The rolled lithium core is protected by a mini-fortress of steel that you have to cut through. The danger is accidentally shorting the battery and causing the internal materials to fuse. The video shows you what you have to go through and what to expect when opening an energizer ultimate lithium battery.

Lithium is a powerful chemical reducing agent, it's also used for lithiation reactions in organic synthesis, batteries, unusual pyrotechnic formulations and some types of nuclear technologies.

It's in the same category as the alkali metals which include the ever so popular sodium, potassium and cesium.

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Comments

[Peregrine05]

I don't see anything.

[kiko2704]

NurdRage can I use dead/used batteries?

[TrollFaceTheMan]

You can but the Lithium Quality will be Drasitcally Diminished...

[carlos1984]

well that answers my question but the two batteries I tried , the lithium had no reaction at all with water, this obviously due to the batteries being completely dead.

[carlos1984]

hi guys , I have tried this using an old samsung lithium battery and an 18650 lithium battery, the problem i had was that although I did extract the metal when I tested a small peice in water to see if it was reactive nothing happened. Is this because the cells were completely dead? Should I only attempt to get viable lithium from fresh batteries?

[history323]

Thanks for the instrucable i have an element collection and could not find cheap lithium (my budget is fairly low) for the life of me!
Also thanks for all your effort in helping aspiring chemists like me to learn all about chemistry!!!
 Also have you ever read/heard of the Golden book of Chemistry? It has lots of cool experiments to try in it heres a link to the pdf since its banned from the library :(  http://chemistry.about.com/b/2008/08/05/banned-book-the-golden-book-of-chemistry-experiments.htm
Thanks again!

[RogerD5]

OK, good. Try adding a cube of Astatine and Francium XDXD

[RogerD5]

OK, good. Try adding a cube of Astatine and Francium XDXD

[Breygon]

Thanks for the book link. It's great! ?

[psycronizer.]

[Alec Eiffel]

I tried this instructable and it worked really well. It's a lot harder than it looks . I was wondering why does the metal fizz when you put into water?

[TrollFaceTheMan]

That and fire...

[NurdRage]

It's like sodium, it reacts with water to produce hydrogen

[lobo_pal]

If I recall correctly, sometimes it will form H3 instead of H2 and cause an even more violent reaction.

[NurdRage]

H3 doesn't exist under normal conditions.

[lobo_pal]

In Chem AP we watched a sodium reaction, and he explained the sometimes the Hydrogen rush to meet and three of them hit at once causing H3 which then reacts again to make two H2 with another Hydrogen. Right?

[NurdRage]

O_o whoa... the sheer idiocy.... Would explain why he's a teacher and not an actual scientist. Trihydrogen cations are present in extreme gaseous conditions like gas plasma discharges and interstellar clouds. But in an aqueous medium, anything powerful enough to protonate hydrogen gas would already be reactive with other things like the water or whatever else happens to be nearby long before it can produce trihyrogen cations.

[lobo_pal]

I may not be repeating it right, but he said that for some reason that escapes me that some reactions are more violent than others.

[NurdRage]

there are plenty of reasons for alkali metal reations to be violent. maybe that's what he meant but didn't properly explain why.

[lobo_pal]

Well, I'm starting my major in Chem E in the fall, so I'm trying to study up on stuff.