Battery leverages both iron and oxygen to drive more lithium ions. On paper, it doesn’t seem like Christopher Wolverton’s super lithium-rich battery should work. For one, the novel battery uses iron, an inexpensive metal that has notoriously failed in batteries. And in another difficult feat, the battery leverages oxygen to help drive the chemical reaction, […]
Lithium News
South America Finds New Riches in Lithium Supply
Despite advances in battery technology, production is still dependent on three elemental metals: cobalt, graphite, and lithium. The amount of lithium actually used in batteries is relatively small as a percentage of their total weight. That is why, despite the rising cost of the commodity, battery prices are falling as production increases. Companies, such as […]
Tesla CEO Elon Musk arrives in Chile sparking lithium rumors again
Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly arrived in Chile this week, sparking rumors in the lithium world, which Chile is the center of in some sense. Chilean media are reporting that Musk arrived in the country on Wednesday. Latercera reported: “Sources from the Investigative Police (PDI) confirmed their arrival in the country, which was later ratified […]
Autonomous cars need tougher batteries, lithium ion pioneer says
TOKYO — Battery makers must rethink their technology if predictions for a wave of self-driving vehicles pan out, according to one of the inventors of the lithium ion battery. In addition to focusing on making batteries more powerful to extend the driving range of single-owner cars, manufacturers will also need to develop devices that can […]
A greener way to get lithium?
Sorbent could extract the battery material from geothermal power plant brine A newly improved sorbent could offer an environmentally friendly way to get lithium from a relatively untapped resource in the U.S.: the brine produced by geothermal power plants (Environ. Sci. Technol. 2017, DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b03464). These plants pump hot water from deep geothermal deposits and use it […]
Trace elements of lithium in drinking water linked to longer life in Alzheimer’s patients
Trace elements of lithium in drinking water may slow death rates from Alzheimer’s disease, new research suggests. Rates of diabetes and obesity, which are important risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, also decrease if there is a particular amount of lithium in the water, says the study, published recently in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease. Postdoctoral fellow […]
