Sciencemadness Discussion Board

How to get the Lithium metal out of cellphone batteries?

antimon - 5-11-2015 at 05:14

Hi, i am free this weekend to do whatever i want, the wife and kids are going to visit her sister.
So i was thinking about maybe doing some experimenting.

I havent decided what to do yet, but i have been wanting to take my Li ion cell phone battery collection and take out the metal, and make a Li salt that i can use later as an electrolyte when i am getting started with my fuel cell.

And/or, i am thinking about refining some of my sterling silver. I just hope that i will have time to do both.

Ps. I have some MnO2 that i was planning to make Mn Dioxide of, but i think its pretty "dirty" right now, so i want to get rid of all the impurities.
How do i do that the best way?

And also, i dont have any titanium electrodes to coat it with. Can i use some other electrode metal?

Im sorry if this post is a mess, i am on my way home on the bus, and it is packed with people, and super hot, so.

arkoma - 5-11-2015 at 05:25

Li ion batteries don't contain metallic lithium

ganger631 - 5-11-2015 at 10:08

Your best bet is to open some lithium batteries. Like arkoma said, lithium ion battery does not contain any metallic battery.

MrHomeScientist - 5-11-2015 at 10:21

Specifically Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries. As said before, 'lithium ion' battery chemistry is very different than 'lithium' batteries. Trying to break open a lithium ion battery might lead to one of these fun situations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tpb-n22Y-sY