Quote:
Originally Posted by Christ
1.Is there a way to chemically synthesize lithium? (A cost effective way, I mean... we can synthesize anything.)
2. What about recycled lithium? Can it be used to make new batteries?
3. Where does medicinal lithium come from?
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1. No, because it's a chemical element not a compound.
2. Lithium batteries can be recycled, but because it has to be done using cryomilling at very low temperature (below -200F) there are very few places that do it. It's a very chemically reactive material.
3. Same as for every other use, from ores that high trace amounts of the desired material. In this case those are spodumene, petamite, and hectorite clay.
Lithium batteries are expensive because they're a low-volume item at the moment and they have to be processed through equipment that is on a 6-month obsolescence cycle at the moment (biggest hurdle to cost-effective mass production at the moment). Smaller manufacturers do most of the cell packing and wiring by hand in clean rooms.
Nano crystalline porous silicon electrodes have the potential to quadruple the power density of future Lithium batteries. Experiments already performed with crude test versions have given a 40% increase in power density.