Metal Powder

Lithium powder is a soft, lightest and silvery-white alkali metal.   Like all alkali metals, lithium is highly reactive and flammable so it should be stored in mineral oil. Lithium reacts with hydrochloric acid (HCl) and produces lithium chloride, which is the compound utilized to produce lithium metal by electrolysis.

The most indispensable use of lithium powder is in rechargeable batteries for mobile phones, digital cameras, laptops, and electric vehicles. Lithium is also employed in some non-rechargeable batteries for things such as heart pacemakers, toys, and clocks. Lithium metal is made into alloys with aluminium and magnesium, enhancing their strength and making them lighter. A magnesium-lithium alloy is utilized for armor plating.

Aluminium-lithium alloys are employed in bicycle frames, aircraft, and high-speed trains. Oxide of Lithium is utilized in special glasses and glass-ceramics. Lithium chloride is one of the hygroscopic materials and is applied in air conditioning and industrial drying systems (as is lithium bromide). Lithium stearate is applied as a high-temperature lubricant and Lithium carbonate is used in drugs to treat manic depression.

Lithium powder is used as a means of storing hydrogen for use as fuel in the form of lithium hydride. Oxide of Lithium is widely used as a flux for processing silica, reducing the melting point and viscosity of the material and leading to glazes with enhanced physical properties involving low coefficients of thermal expansion. Glazes containing lithium oxides are utilized for ovenware. Metallic lithium and its complex hydrides, for instance, Li [AlH4] are utilized as high-energy additives to rocket propellants.

Lithium powder (e.g. as lithium carbonate) is applied as an additive to continuous casting mold flux slags where it surges fluidity. Lithium (as lithium fluoride) is employed as an additive to aluminium smelters, lessen melting temperature and increasing electrical resistance.