What Is Lithium?

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Many electronic devices use batteries that contain lithium metal or lithium compounds.
Credit: AlexLMX | Shutterstock
▼ The lightest known metal can also lighten your mood. Lithium, atomic number 3, is an element of many uses. It's used in the manufacture of aircraft and in certain batteries. It's also used in mental health: Lithium carbonate is a common treatment of bipolar disorder, helping to stabilize wild mood swings caused by the illness.
Lithium has a flashy discovery story — literally. A Brazilian naturalist and statesman, Jozé Bonifácio de Andralda e Silva, discovered the mineral petalite (LiAISi4O10) on the Swedish isle Utö in the 1790s, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry(RSC). The mineral is white to gray, but when thrown into fire, it flares bright crimson.
In 1817, Swedish chemist Johan August Arfwedson discovered that petalite contained a previously unknown element. He wasn't able to isolate the metal entirely, but he did isolate one of its salts. The name, lithium, comes from "lithos," the Greek word for "stone."
It took until 1855 for someone to isolate lithium: British chemist Augustus Matthiessen and German chemist Robert Bunsen ran a current through lithium chloride to separate the element.
Physical properties
According to the Jefferson National Linear Accelerator Laboratory, the properties of lithium are:
*.Atomic number (number of protons in the nucleus): 3
*.Atomic symbol (on the Periodic Table of  Elements): Li
*.Atomic weight (average mass of the atom): 6.941
*.Density: 0.534 grams per cubic centimeter
*.Phase at room temperature: Solid
*.Melting point: 356.9 degrees Fahrenheit (180.5 degrees Celsius)
*.Boiling point:  2448 degrees Fahrenheit (1342 degrees Celsius)
*.Number of isotopes (atoms of the same element with a different number of neutrons): 10; 2 stable
*.Most common isotopes: Li-7 (92.41 percent natural abundance), Li-6 (7.59 percent natural abundance)
The brain on lithium
Lithium is a special metal in many ways. It's light and soft — so soft that it can be cut with a kitchen knife and so low in density that it floats on water. It's also solid at a wide range of temperatures, with one of the lowest melting points of all metals and a high boiling point.
Like its fellow alkali metal, sodium, lithium reacts with water in showy form. The combo of Li and H2O forms lithium hydroxide and hydrogen, which typically bursts into red  flame.
Lithium makes up a mere 0.0007 percent of the Earth's crust, according to the Jefferson  Lab, and it's only found locked up in minerals and salts. Those salts have the power to change the brain: Lithium salts were the first drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat mania and depression, according to the National  Institute of Mental Health.
Today, lithium carbonate is the compound most often sold as a pharmaceutical. No one knows exactly how lithium works to stabilize mood. Studies show multiple effects on the nervous system. In 2008, for example, researchers reported in the journal Cellthat lithium interrupts the activity of a receptor for the neurotransmitter dopamine. It also appears to plump up brain volume, according to a 2011 study in the journal Biological  Psychiatry(though this research is hotly  contested). In a study with worms, biologists at MIT found that lithium inhibits a key protein in the worms' brain, making neurons linked to an avoidance behavior go dormant. Essentially, the worms stopped avoiding harmful bacteria without that protein. The findings, which would need to be replicated in humans, suggest the element silences certain neurons in the brain and may have a calming effect, the researchers reported in 2016 in the journal Current Biology.
Lithium in space (▪ ▪ ▪)

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