Lithium as an investment increased tendency for costlier components to be targeted for replacement by new technologies. Current projections of the global market for lithium-ion batteries range from $26 billion in 2023 ("Navigant Research") to a very optimistic $33 billion in 2019 ("Transparency Market Research"). Lithium metal is an extremely soft, highly reactive, and flammable element. It is most frequently found in deposits such as spodumene and pegmatite minerals, with larger resources in the U.S., Canada, Australia, China, Zimbabwe, and Russia. Lithium possesses a unique chemical profile making it the lightest metal in the periodic table and the least dense solid element. Its atomic
Solid solution strengthening element, a substitutional solid solution or an interstitial solid solution can form. In both cases, the overall crystal structure is essentially unchanged. Substitutional solid solution strengthening occurs when the solute atom is large enough that it can replace solvent atoms in their lattice positions. Some alloying elements are only soluble in small amounts, whereas some solvent and solute pairs form a solution over the whole range of binary compositions. Generally, higher solubility is seen when solvent and solute atoms are similar in atomic size (15% according to the Hume-Rothery rules) and adopt the same crystal structure in their pure form.