Re: Lithium Carbonate

From:RSRICHMOND@aol.com

Toy Bridgman in Enid OK asks:

>>Could someone tell me how to make a 1% Lithium Carbonate solution? I think 
that
there is supposed to be alcohol in it, but I can't find a recipe for how 
much.<<

The customary lithium carbonate bluing solution is I think around 1%. It's a 
saturated solution, simply prepared by adding lithium carbonate to distilled 
or deionized water until no more will go in, and some white stuff swirls 
around on the bottom of the bottle.

Couple of interesting things about lithium carbonate: it's used in the 
treatment of mania in bipolar disease, though it is not a psychoactive agent 
in the usual sense of the term. Does it cause any problems with regulatory 
agencies because of this medical use?

I've seen bottles of lithium carbonate with the note on them that their 
lithium carbonate has no definite molecular weight. Presumably these batches 
were prepared from lithium that had been depleted of lithium 6 for use in 
making hydrogen bombs, and thus were highly enriched in lithium 7. I suppose 
that this anomaly is taken into account in preparing medicinal lithium 
carbonate, since the dosage range (therapeutic index) of lithium carbonate is 
very narrow.

Bob Richmond
Samurai Pathologist
Knoxville TN




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