Lithium batteries power your world

How much do you really know about them?

Lithium batteries power your world. How much do you really know about them?

High-tech and highly efficient batteries have led to many modern technologies that you use in your everyday life. Here's what you need to know about how they work and their environmental safety.

Workers, wearing red, one piece suits, at the lithium pilot plant use hammers to break up a layer of salt that periodically clogs the pipes transporting brine with lithium into large, turquoise blue evaporation pools.
Workers at a lithium plant in Bolivia use hammers to break up a layer of salt that periodically clogs the pipes transporting brine with lithium into the evaporation pools. Lithium is crucial for powering our modern batteries, but its production harms the local environment.
Photograph by Cedric Gerbehaye, National Geographic Image Collection
BySruthi Gurudev

At the crest of the Andes in Southwestern Bolivia lies a searing white salt flat called the Salar de Uyuni. Characterized by its vast mirror-like surfaces and dry atmosphere, the flat hides beneath it a precious alkali metal that powers much of the modern world.

The Salar de Uyuni is situated in the Lithium Triangle, comprising Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. The region boasts the largest reserves of lithium in the world, which make up the lithium-ion batteries that boot up the electronic devices used by billions around the globe.

Lithium-ion batteries are rechargeable and used in electric vehicles, smartphones, laptops, electric toothbrushes, and other items. The batteries have several advantages, which make them a market leader over alternatives...