• Next (in period)

• Previous period

• Below (in group)

• Periodic Table

Tutorials

• Atomic Structure

• Electrovalent Bonding

• Covalent Bonding

• Water

• Transition Metals

• Metal or Non-metal?

• Noble Gases

General

• Element Identification Timeline

What the name means: The name Lithium comes from the Greek word lithos, meaning stone. This was because Lithium was first discovered in a type of stone called petalite (also know as castorite).

Who identified lithium? A Swedish scientist, called Johann Arfwedson, was the first to identify lithium in the mineral petalite in 1817. A year later, two English scientists called William Thomas Brande and Sir Humphry Davy used a process called electrolysis to produce a pure sample of the element. In 1855, Robert Bunsen and Augustus Matthiessen also used electrolysis to produce a greater quantity of lithium.

About lithium: Lithium is very reactive, which means that it will easy react with other chemicals, such as oxygen gas in the air. It is one of the elements in the first vertical group of the periodic table. The metals in group I are called alkali metals. Lithium cannot be found as a metal on Earth but it occurs as part of the chemical compounds in many rocks, particularly rocks called magma that originate from deep down in the Earth’s crust.