I've read of fire departments that have struggled to put out Lithium battery fires in EV crashes, and read a recent article @ EV car fires that occurred in Florida after their batteries were submerged in water after hurricane flooding.



https://m.youtube.com/shorts/y...UAwxRs?feature=share

My high school chemistry teacher showed us lithium and water reacting.
He put a tiny sliver of it into the water. Quite a violent reaction occurred, like in that video.

I never realized a battery had actually had metal foil in it. I always thought it was some kind of paste that eventually separated, causing the well known leaks.

Lithium can be very dangerous.

Years ago, when Lithium batteries started getting popular, the company I worked at had an electronic tech get hurt when a Lithium battery exploded when he was working on it.

Another guy and I were tasked to investigate and found out how to make them explode all by themselves. We once launched a 32 gallon galvanized garbage can like 2 stories in the air by the force of the explosion.

This is why TSA has regulations about transporting lithium batteries in baggage and in carry ons.

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
My high school chemistry teacher showed us lithium and water reacting.
He put a tiny sliver of it into the water. Quite a violent reaction occurred, like in that video.

I still remember my middle school science teacher doing that. But his experiments frequently went astray.

We ran out of time and didn't do that experiment, so he did it at the beginning of class the next day. After that was some experiment with alcohol. So, on the table was a jar full of alcohol ready to go. The lithium shot flaming bits into the air, and yup one of them landed in the alcohol, instantly catching it on fire! He grabbed a powder fire extinguisher and emptied it onto the table, but also got the first 3 rows of students!

Man, science was fun that year!

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Lithium can be very dangerous.

Years ago, when Lithium batteries started getting popular, the company I worked at had an electronic tech get hurt when a Lithium battery exploded when he was working on it.

Another guy and I were tasked to investigate and found out how to make them explode all by themselves. We once launched a 32 gallon galvanized garbage can like 2 stories in the air by the force of the explosion.

This is why TSA has regulations about transporting lithium batteries in baggage and in carry ons.

This.

The fumes emitted when the batteries overheat/explode are dangerous as well. Stay the heck away of you come upon a fire involving lithium batteries.

Man, what fun! and to think I tossed some AA lithium batteries away. My weather station eats batteries rapidly, especially when it is cold. The lithium ones do better than alkalines.

Lithum metal batteries (lithium primary cells - non-rechargeable coin cells, CR123 flashlight batteries, disposable lithium AAs, etc.) have a small amount of metallic lithium in them, as seen in the YouTube video.

Rechargeable lithium ion batteries don’t have metallic lithium in them (at least not in any meaningful amount in normal operation). They are similar in concept to a lead acid car battery, but the electrodes are made of different materials and they use lithium salts as the electrolyte instead of sulfuric acid.

Lithium salts don’t burn when they touch water. Metallic sodium literally explodes in contact with water; table salt is a sodium salt.

The fire hazard is because the electrolyte solution is flammable.

If you charge or discharge a battery, it heats up. Do it too fast and you can get it hot enough to ignite the flammable electrolyte - like by leaving it underwater for a few days and letting conductive saltwater leak into the battery pack.

Howsabout the lithium jump-starter batteries I keep in my vehicles?

Am I going to burn down my vehicle/shop when they spontaneously combust?

Try that with the crystal form of dilithium!

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
My high school chemistry teacher showed us lithium and water reacting.
He put a tiny sliver of it into the water. Quite a violent reaction occurred, like in that video.

I never realized a battery had actually had metal foil in it. I always thought it was some kind of paste that eventually separated, causing the well known leaks.

Pretty sure it was actually sodium, which is a soft, almost clay like consistency. Our chemistry teacher did the same thing for us. A tiny chip would react quickly with water, sometimes exploding. Lithium would give off very toxic fumes so I’m pretty sure a chemistry teacher would know that.

Lithium was also an ingredient in the old one pot meth labs, which is why they often exploded. They'd open the cap to burp it, it would come into contact with moisture in the air, and BOOM!

Lithium, potassium, sodium metal all react violently with water forming hydrogen gas and their respective hydroxide in the water.

I took an undergrad chemistry class where we worked to identify unknown organic chemicals. One process we used was a sodium fusion with the unknown. A small chunk of sodium was placed into a sample tube, heated to melting and then the unknown was dumped into the tube. That usually generated a serious reaction. Once that ceased, we again heated to tube to melting and then plunged it into a beaker of water and analyzed the resulting sodium salt of the unknown. All done in a fume hood behind the glass shield.

What fun!!

RMD

quote:

Originally posted by Hamden106:
Try that with the crystal form of dilithium!

That could certainly ramp up an experiment...And if I'm giving it all she's got, to a 'Warp Factor' of 10, Captain!

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
My high school chemistry teacher showed us lithium and water reacting.
He put a tiny sliver of it into the water. Quite a violent reaction occurred, like in that video.

I never realized a battery had actually had metal foil in it. I always thought it was some kind of paste that eventually separated, causing the well known leaks.

Pretty sure it was actually sodium, which is a soft, almost clay like consistency. Our chemistry teacher did the same thing for us. A tiny chip would react quickly with water, sometimes exploding. Lithium would give off very toxic fumes so I’m pretty sure a chemistry teacher would know that.

Thinking about it, it probably was Sodium.
That was 50 years ago, so my memory was probably off.

Alkali metals…look at a periodic table and the properties generally increase for elements as you go down a single column… Certainly generally true for alkali metals.

quote:

Originally posted by gearhounds:

quote:

Originally posted by WaterburyBob:
My high school chemistry teacher showed us lithium and water reacting.
He put a tiny sliver of it into the water. Quite a violent reaction occurred, like in that video.

I never realized a battery had actually had metal foil in it. I always thought it was some kind of paste that eventually separated, causing the well known leaks.

Pretty sure it was actually sodium, which is a soft, almost clay like consistency. Our chemistry teacher did the same thing for us. A tiny chip would react quickly with water, sometimes exploding. Lithium would give off very toxic fumes so I’m pretty sure a chemistry teacher would know that.

Our chemistry teacher would gather us up by a stream near the school. There the lessons on Sodium and Phosphorus would take place. Stories of his combat experience were woven into the lesson.

By today’s standard I’m pretty sure I witnessed many felonies in high school. This lesson had to be one of them.

quote:

Originally posted by Flash-LB:
Lithium can be very dangerous.

Years ago, when Lithium batteries started getting popular, the company I worked at had an electronic tech get hurt when a Lithium battery exploded when he was working on it.

Another guy and I were tasked to investigate and found out how to make them explode all by themselves. We once launched a 32 gallon galvanized garbage can like 2 stories in the air by the force of the explosion.

This is why TSA has regulations about transporting lithium batteries in baggage and in carry ons.

Similar here, but was fatal for 1 & injury for another.
4ft battery in a brass tube, failed during a heat test & exploded.
Shrapnel perforated the roof of the building ~25' above.

Now I've got an experiment to do! OK, not in the basement or garage. Sure wish the video gave us some idea of scale.

https://theoatmeal.com/comics/how_be_dog