Lithium • Alkali Metal
Primary XPS region: Li1s
Overlapping regions: Au5p3/2, Fe3p1/2
Binding energies of common chemical states:
|Chemical state||Binding energy Li1s|
Charge referenced to adventitious C1s peak at 284.8eV.
- Li1s peak has very low sensitivity.
- Use a large number (50) of scans when acquiring Li1s spectrum.
Interpretation of XPS spectra
- There are no lithium secondary peaks to assist in confirmation.
- Difficult to confidently assign Li1s peak for low concentrations. In the case of overlap with other elements, peak fitting will be required.
- In the example shown below, the Fe3p components have been empirically fitted (they do not represent a theoretically rigorous treatment of the Fe3p peak shape).
About this element
Date of discovery: 1817
Name origin: Greek lithos
Discoverer: Johann Arfvedson
Obtained from: kernite
Melting point: 453.69 K
Boiling point: 1620.15 K
Molar volume: 13.02 × 10-6 m3/mol
Shell structure: 2,1
Electron configuration: [He]2s1
Oxidation state: 1
Crystal structure: body centered cubic
Johann Arfvedson discovered lithium in 1817 in a petalite ore found in Sweden. However, the highly reactive nature of lithium prevented its isolation until W.T. Brande and H. Davy used electrolysis on lithium oxide. Lithium is not found freely in nature because of its reactive nature. It is the lightest metal with a density about half that of water. Lithium is characterized by a bright red color when heated. The high electrochemical potential of lithium makes it an important material in storage batteries. Some lithium alloys are used to make high performance aircraft parts and a number of lithium salts are used as mood stabilizers in the treatment of bipolar disorder and depression.
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