What is Lithium iodide?

Lithium iodide, or LiI, is a compound of lithium and iodine. When exposed to air, it becomes yellow in color, due to the oxidation of iodide to iodine. It crystallizes in the NaCl motif. Various hydrates are also known.
Lithium iodide is used as an electrolyte for high temperature batteries. It is also used for long life batteries as required, for example, by artificial pacemakers. The solid is used as a phosphor for neutron detection.
In organic synthesis, LiI is useful for cleaving C-O bonds. For example it can be used to convert methyl esters to carboxylic acids: RCO2Me + LiI + H2O → RCO2H + LiOH
Similar reactions apply to epoxides and aziridines.
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