{"id":22657,"date":"2022-06-28T15:55:51","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T14:55:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=22657"},"modified":"2022-06-28T15:55:51","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T14:55:51","slug":"exploring-applications-lithium-future-innovation-potential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/exploring-applications-lithium-future-innovation-potential\/22657\/","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the diverse applications of lithium and its future innovation potential"},"content":{"rendered":"
Donald S. Bubar, President and CEO of Avalon Advanced Materials Inc., discusses the vast applications of lithium as well as its potential for further innovation.<\/h2>\n
While lithium is widely acknowledged as a critical material in battery technologies, it has many other traditional applications and the potential for more through innovation. The first major commercial application of lithium was in high-temperature greases\u00a0for aircraft engines during the second World War and later in nuclear fusion technologies.<\/p>\n
Lithium has also long been recognised for it its benefits to human health, particularly in the treatment of depression, where lithium carbonate is commonly prescribed for bipolar disorder and as a mood stabiliser. As well as this, it may have potential in other medical applications. There is also data indicating that where lithium has occurred naturally in drinking water, communities drinking the water would suffer less manic depression and suicide rates would be lower than most other communities where the water did not contain lithium. Interestingly, an elder from the Indigenous community located closest to Avalon\u2019s Separation Rapids lithium resource, shared stories of their traditional knowledge of the area. They explained that they had recognised the health benefits of the original outcrop of the lithium resource and referred to it as \u201cthe healing rock\u201d and when community members were suffering from depression, they were encouraged to go and camp there and a week or two later would come back happy.<\/p>\n
In the 1950s, Corning Inc. discovered how lithium could be used to produce very high strength glass-ceramics products which led to the manufacture of Corningware\u00ae cookware. Since then, there has been further innovation of other high strength glass-ceramic products such as Ceran\u00ae stovetops by the major German glass-ceramic manufacturer Schott Glass. In both cases, the rare high purity lithium aluminum silicate mineral, petalite, (LiAlSi4<\/sub>O10<\/sub>) was how lithium was introduced into the batch.<\/p>\n