Good News-they found lithium! Bad news-they found lithium!

Post Reply New Topic

India just found new and fantastically rich deposits of lithium inside thier country.

Thats great news because lithium is kinda 'the new oil'. The metal is vital for batteries in calculators, phones, and in electric cars. Its a boon for India's growing industrial economy. And a boon to everyone because the world has a new supply of the vital stuff. Expect prices on high tech cars and stuff to go down maybe.

The bad news?

They found these deposits in Jammu/Kashmir. The disputed province in the north- long fought over by Pakistan and India (with China also occupying bits of it too).

The Persian gulf is a trouble spot BECAUSE of its vital resource: oil.

But Kashmir was already fought over for decades before ...they knew it had any resource worth fighting over!

So...look forward renewed trouble - between the three nuclear powered giants of Asia (India, Pakistan, and China)after this discovery!

This is why we need sodium-based battery solution out of the lab ASAP.

I am waiting for my Mr. Fusion to arrive by post.

There is a catch with using sodium metal in batteries. Much like lithium metal, sodium metal reacts exothermically with water. During the reaction process, hydrogen gas is generated. With sodium, the amount of energy released can be enough to ignite the hydrogen gas if a large enough piece reacts at one time, causing an explosion. I used to show this situation as a lab demo to my students. (Potassium metal is even more reactive, it floats on the water on fire even in small pieces. It generates enough heat to ignite the hydrogen gas as it forms.)

As long as the sodium metal can be properly contained, the battery would be ok to use. But, how often would a crack form on the outside seal of the battery and cause an issue? People do really dumb things with batteries. The containers would have to be engineered to be fool proof. That issue would have to be resolved before sodium batteries have a chance of going on the consumer market.

What exactly ARE "Di lithium crystals"?

They were used to fuel the Enterprise in Star Trek.

On SOME planets theyre even found as pretty "common rocks".


https://youtu.be/a2axmXft0R8