EliasExperiments
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Making Lithium Powder
You can see how I turned a big chunck of lithium metal into some powder in this video:
https://youtu.be/6Wl7D7eNLaw
Can anybody guess what I need the lithium powder for?
Also if anybody has a good idea how to make cutting of lithium metal easier, I would appreciate it a lot.
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itsallgoodjames
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Maybe to reduce some other metal salt into its metallic form? Or making lithium batteries? Total guess of course. Lithium based pyrotechnics were
my first thought, but that seems like a rather poor idea, given they would ignite if you spilled a little bit of water.
[Edited on 2-11-2020 by itsallgoodjames]
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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zed
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Hunh? It's obvious. You plan to react that Lihium with Deutrium and/or Tritium, to produce your own personal thermonuclear devices.
Most of us have similar devices in our basements.
But, tell us; how do you plan to trigger your devices?
A non-fission trigger must require an awfully clever use of materials. Unless of course, you have acquired fissionable materials somehow. Hard to do
around here.
Now me, I'm located in the U.S., where most explosives are relatively legal. Still, the government does tend to restrict access to Uranium and
Plutonium. Have you come up with something better?
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MidLifeChemist
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thanks Elias, I just subscribed to your channel
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itsallgoodjames
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Quote: Originally posted by zed  | Hunh? It's obvious. You plan to react that Lihium with Deutrium and/or Tritium, to produce your own personal thermonuclear devices.
Most of us have similar devices in our basements.
But, tell us; how do you plan to trigger your devices?
A non-fission trigger must require an awfully clever use of materials. Unless of course, you have acquired fissionable materials somehow. Hard to do
around here.
Now me, I'm located in the U.S., where most explosives are relatively legal. Still, the government does tend to restrict access to Uranium and
Plutonium. Have you come up with something better?
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I know that this is a joke, but...
You need lithium-6 to make tritium, and by extension a thermonuclear weapon. Lithium 7 comprises approximately 92% of natural lithium, so you'd need
a hell of a lot of lithium to make any reasonable quantity of lithium 6. Plus then there's the challenge of isotope seperation, which is difficult
enough with hydrogen and deuterium, nevermind lithium 6 and 7. Commercial lithium metal tends to be depleted in lithium 6, because it's usually
sourced as a byproducd of lithium 6 production. By extension, that lithium powder is likely less than 1% lithium 6.
You can use a fusor as a neutron source. The whole thing could even be integrated into a vacuum tube type device, assuming you don't care about
running out of deuterium and tritium, which isn't an issue for such a thing, given it's only going to be running for a tiny fraction of a second
before it gets destroyed by the blast. You could also use an alpha emmiter such as americium from huge amounts of smoke detectors,
along with beryllium 9. The two mix together from the blast, emitting lots of neutrons. This is very similar to the mechanism used to start the
fission of most early nuclear devices, though polonium 210 was used instead of americium 241. Polonium is hard to get for obvious reasons.
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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EliasExperiments
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@itsallgoodjames Yes I will use it as a reducing agent, but not for a metal and not for ordinary pyrotechnics. 
@zed Well you are obviously right. That's why I collected uranium ore in a previous video. No jk it is certainly something chemistry related, that
nobody has done on youtube or in this forum yet. And it is very awesome. I
just hope I can pull it off now...
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itsallgoodjames
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| Quote: Originally posted by EliasExperiments | @itsallgoodjames Yes I will use it as a reducing agent, but not for a metal and not for ordinary pyrotechnics.
@zed Well you are obviously right. That's why I collected uranium ore in a previous video. No jk it is certainly something chemistry related, that
nobody has done on youtube or in this forum yet. And it is very awesome. I
just hope I can pull it off now...
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I was actually thinking you might use it to reduce yellowcake from the ore to uranium metal, but I guess that's not it...
I'm guessing it's related to organic chem, which I'm not familiar with at all, so I have no clue.
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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EliasExperiments
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Organic chemistry is half correct.
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itsallgoodjames
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Organometallic?
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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EliasExperiments
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Organic chemistry is half correct.
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itsallgoodjames
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Yeah, I have no clue then
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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EliasExperiments
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Sorry my page bugged out, I have no idea why my last reply got posted twice...
Organometallic is the correct answer! ;-)
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itsallgoodjames
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Oh, neat. Good luck!
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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MidLifeChemist
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Clearly this involves the reaction of aliphatic and aromatic secondary and tertiary N-tritylamines using catalytic naphthalene
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karlos³
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The preparation of lithium acetylide ethylenediamine complex?
If so, very good choice!
But then again, is that even an organometallic in a true sense? Probably not...
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zed
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Hnuh? You are suggesting Li 7 is inert, to fusion. It isn't. Though it isn't exactly clear what role it might play in a device that did not involve
fissionable material.
Twas Li 7, that caused the Bimini Islands to become uninhabitable. The guys used a mixture of Li6 & Li7 in their bomb, figuring the Li7 wouldn't
do much. They were wrong. Thus, a device figured to yield a 5 Megaton Blast, instead yielded about 15, and it was a dirty blast. Oooops!
Seems I need to read up on the subject, though. A lot of previously obscure information, has become available online.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo
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itsallgoodjames
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Huh, interesting. I was under the impression it was basically inert to neutron radiation and such, given it's used in liquid fluorite nuclear
reactors. Good to know I guess.
Nuclear physics is neat. It's a shame it's so regulated...
Now that I think about it, that's probably a good thing. Still annoying though.
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EliasExperiments
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@MidLifeChemist No idea what's up with that. I am doing something a lot more basic.
@karlos³ Not lithium acetylide, but that is getting a lot closer. In my book that would be a truly organometallic compound, because you have a carbon
metal bond to a hydrocarbon.
@zed and itsallgoodjames Please stop with your nuclear weapons I don't want to go down that route. I want to live a happy life still.
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EthidiumBromide
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Well, I think the addition of sodium gave a hint - you want to make some alkyllithium reagent (perhaps butyllithium?) by reacting the sodium-activated
lithium powder with an alkyl halide. If this is not it, then I'm stumped.
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zed
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Hmmm. Well, you did ask us to guess.
Should we guess that we have come perilously close to discovering your objective?
And you are now become nervous?
Hah! Just teasing!
I gotta check your link again.
Yup! I was surprised by Lithium's rather tame reactivity.
Sodium likes to explode upon being dumped in water.
Another surprise, was your use of "dry ice". I don't assume that CO2 is inert to Alkali metals, Complex Hydrides, or Organo-Metallics.
Regarding cutting up your Metallic Lithium. Do you think a pizza cutter might be helpful? It's a thought.
I was initially thinking of one with a round cutting wheel, but the broad bladed type, might also prove useful.
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p23800...
[Edited on 3-11-2020 by zed]
[Edited on 3-11-2020 by zed]
[Edited on 3-11-2020 by zed]
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EthidiumBromide
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Imo the best type of knife to cut lithium would be a large, well sharpened chef's knife with a straight, non-serrated edge. Lithium is the hardest of
the alkalis, cutting up big chunks takes quite a bit of elbow grease. Not exactly "soft as butter", unlike sodium or potassium.
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EliasExperiments
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@EthidiumBromide Yes you are absolutely right. I am planning to make an alkyllithium reagent. Several of them actually. Butyllithium is one of them.
And I will take it even further, but my first attempt today didn't yield me the desired outcome exactly, but I will hopefully have one of the videos
finished by the end of november lol. You will certainly get mentioned there.
@zed Lol the idea with the pizza roller sounds totally awesome. I have to try that next time I'll be cutting lithium! Don't worry I'll credit you for that.
The dry ice was to make an atmospherically stable coating of unknown composition on the lithium metal, acording to the patent I cited in the video
description. They only x-rayed the surface and said the composition of the elements, which didn't really help me.
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symboom
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this should be merged with these posts
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=17888#...
http://www.sciencemadness.org/talk/viewthread.php?tid=30298#...
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