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lithium-6 deuteride (sometimes abbreviated as LiD) is a solid form of hydrogen. It is formed by reacting lithium-6 and deuterium using a palladium catalyst. The reaction takes place under extreme heat and pressure, similar to those conditions in a fusion reactor. The reaction produces a great deal of energy as beta particles (atomic nuclei with no net electric charge). It also produces neutrons. The reaction can be used to produce electrical energy in a betavoltaic cell.
It is not produced in large quantities commercially, but it is made by separating lithium-6 from lithium-7 by mass spectrometry or laser enrichment. The process is not cheap, but it is less expensive than generating deuterium ions by bombarding lithium with protons at a particle accelerator. The US used to produce enriched Li-6 for Teller-Ulam secondaries, but that practice has been largely abandoned.
The relative mass differences between lithium-6 and lithium-7 mean that a small amount of LiD is able to contain much more of the hydrogen isotopes than does a gas of hydrogen. The atoms in a gas are fairly spread apart, so a much larger quantity must be used to get the same energy from the same volume. This reduces the efficiency of the reaction and increases the size of the apparatus required.
Another benefit of the reaction is that it allows the hydrogen atoms to be bound more tightly to lithium than would otherwise be possible, resulting in a smaller volume for the same mass of hydrogen. This can make a reaction safer, as it reduces the chances of an accidental release of radioactive particles. It also makes the reaction easier to control, since the atoms are more securely held by the lithium.