Lithium – Who Uses It – and Lithium Uses
Who buys lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and battery grade lithium metal? To understand the market segment for lithium we need to understand where lithium comes from, where it is used and why it is used. Lithium was first discovered through a chain of events and a number of scientists. Near the end of the 18th century the mineral petalite was discovered by the Brazilian scientist José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva. Then in 1817 Johan August Arfvedson, while conducting an analysis of petalite ore, Arfvedson discovered lithium in the minerals spodumene and lepidolite. Then C.G. Gmelin observed in 1818 that lithium salts produce flames that are bright red yet neither Gmelin nor Arfvedson were able to isolate the element itself from lithium salts. A few years later the lithium was isolated by W.T. Brande and Sir Humphrey Davy by the electrolysis of lithium oxide and then in 1855, Bunsen and Mattiessen isolated large quantities of the metal by the electrolysis of lit...