Abstract
Lithium (Li) was discovered by J. August Arfvedson in 1817 (Berzelius 1817). The newly isolated alkaline compound in the Swedish petalite sample was given the Greek name for stone: λίθος (lithos); the metal was dubbed lithium. In the following year Sir Humphry Davy described the isolation of metallic Li using electrolysis (Anonymous 1818), although this development is commonly considered contemporaneous with the work of Brande (Weeks 1956). Using a more modern electrolytic process, Bunsen and Matthiessen succeeded in isolating multi-gram quantities of Li metal (Bunsen 1855). Commercial production of Li started only after World War I. A more massive production commenced after World War II with the findings of potential Li utility in the nuclear industry.
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Tomascak, P.B., Magna, T., Dohmen, R. (2016). Introduction. In: Advances in Lithium Isotope Geochemistry. Advances in Isotope Geochemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01430-2_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01430-2_1
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