You can obtain pure lithium from a lithium battery. It's an adult-only project and even then, you need to use safety precautions, but it's simple and easy.
Safety Precautions
Lithium reacts with moisture and may
spontaneously ignite. Don't allow it to come in contact with your skin.
Also, cutting into a battery often causes a short circuit, which may
produce a fire. While this is not unexpected or problematic, it does
mean you need to perform this procedure on a fire-safe surface such as
concrete, preferably outdoors. Eye and skin protection is a must.
Materials
You want a new battery for this project since the
lithium can be extracted as a relatively uncorroded metal foil. If you
use a used battery you'll get a product that might be better for making
colored fire, but it will be impure and fragile.
- New Lithium Battery (e.g., AA or 9V lithium battery)
- Safety Glasses or Goggles
- Gloves
- Insulated Wirecutters and Pliers
Procedure
Basically you cut the top off the battery to expose
the roll of lithium metal foil inside. The "trick" is to do this without
shorting out the battery. While you don't want a fire, be prepared for
one. Simply drop the battery and let it burn out. This should not take
long and usually won't damage much of the lithium metal in the battery.
Once the fire is out, proceed.
- You're wearing protective gear and know not-to-panic if you see
fire, right? Okay then, use the cutters to carefully remove the top from
the battery. This is when you're most likely to accidentally cause a
short. Try to cut the tough outer rim of the casing without hitting the
central core.
- Quickly cut any connections and remove any
rings or disks from the top of the battery. If the battery starts to get
hot, you likely have a short. Cut away anything suspicious to address
the issue.Cut and peel back the casing to expose the metal core,
which is the lithium. Use pliers to extract the lithium. Try not to
puncture the central plastic container, as this can lead to a short and
fire. It's sort of like playing that Operation game except if you touch
something you shouldn't, you'll heat up the metal and potentially see
fire.
- Pull away the plastic tape or wrap and unroll
the metal. The shiny metal is aluminum foil, which you may remove and
discard. Black powdery material is electrolyte, which you can wrap in
plastic and discard in a fire-safe container. Remove any additional
plastic. You should be left with sheets of lithium metal, which will
oxidize as you watch from silver to brown.
- Either use the lithium right away or store it right away.
It degrades quickly in air, especially humid air. You can use the
lithium for projects (for example, it burns bright white as a metal
while its salts impart a red color to flames or fireworks) or store the lithium under liquid paraffin oil.
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