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Outside of nuclear reactions, elements are not created or destroyed. What happens in old batteries is the physical structure of the lithium metal is damaged so
by eloff 5y ago
Outside of nuclear reactions, elements are not created or destroyed.
What happens in old batteries is the physical structure of the lithium metal is damaged so it does not function as well as a battery, but you can separate out the lithium from the old battery, melt it down and reform it into a new battery (or whatever else you want to do with lithium.)
- pfdietz 5y agoLithium ion batteries don't contain lithium metal. The lithium is always in the +1 oxidation state.
- eloff 5y agoTo me oxidized metal is a metal, but then that's why I'm not an expert in that field by any stretch of the imagination.
- coryrc 5y agoAluminum is a metal but we don't consider ceramic (aluminum oxide) to be a metal.
- samatman 5y agoMetals are always metals, but they are only metallic in the fully reduced state. So we say "metallic iron" and so on. So an oxidized metal isn't "a metal" on the macro scale, because it isn't metallic.
- kragen 5y agoYou said, "the physical structure of the lithium metal". There is no such physical structure of a bunch of ions floating around in an electrolyte and intercalating themselves into electrodes.
- pfdietz 5y agoIf any form of lithium is a metal, then the phrase you used, "lithium metal", is redundant. Why not just say "lithium"?