I mean, off the shelf liquids as a whole, I don't frequent anywhere specific for it, or rather, I didn't when I decided to go with blending nicotine/propylene glycol with commercial flavourings.
I don't think I've ever had a commercial ready to use straight out of the bottle off the shelf variety that DIDN'T give off nasty choking acrolein fumes. And the battery in question wasn't from a dedicated shop, just a corner shop, got it because I've had one of the same batteries before, a high-capacity one that lasts a good long time from a full charge and that I could say has never failed me, if it weren't somewhere in the middle of last night. When it promptly went and did.
Annoying thing too, is its one of those lithium ion polymer batteries, so I can't even dunk it under a protective bowl full of petrol and fillet it to reclaim some useful lithium metal foil. (I do have ready access to lithium metal, sodium, potassium, or with much expense, rubidium or caesium, but for one certain specific chemical process, or rather, a variation in the methodology of a known reaction, that although it lengthens the time taken to generate the active reagent from about as quick as the lithium can be added to a couple of hours, is actually far less effort, with no need to plan ahead and buy some dry ice, no fucking about with taking care with pressure, and IMO improved safety for anyone who was not accustomed to performing the reaction and had to choose between the cryogen-free, nasty, corrosive, caustic solvent-free way that takes a bit longer, and more drying agent and the older more well known way of doing it that requires one to cool things way, way down, with dry ice/acetone baths, if one is going to not to have to fuck about slaving all day to prepare the solvent alone (the reaction is fast, preparing the medium in which to perform it, is not, done the typical way), or to make what would be a very 'watched' sort of purchase indeed, if at all one could do so. Or the really uneconomical middle ground of using a whole load of CO2 fire extinguishers, inverted and vented through a lot of fine cloth or other fine, thermally poorly conductive weave of a similar structural nature then the resultant CO2 'snow' stuffed in something not sealed in a way it would have to rupture due to pressure overtaking physical tolerances and compacted with blunt force into a block (otherwise it evaporates and disappears too quickly), or else really REALLY buggering about with sequential levels of g using solvent/water ice/salts or acids or bases depending on which stage you are at in the zones of coolant mixtures.)
And then, for the dry ice-free trick method, battery grade Li actually performs better than reagent grade, from experience and opinion, not as fast IF the solvent is there, on hand to do it neat in the cryogenic liquefied corrosive gas, then its minutes, but if not, and in the particular case of this specific medium, it is rather 'hot' to attempt to get hold if in ready-compressed cylinders which can simply be inverted to dispense it as a liquid, but rather, one can employ the lithium cut up really finely as a suspension in ether, and what one would otherwise spend all day liquefying without dry ice or a tank, and in the case of a tank, most who are not in 'officialdom' of some form are have-nots, not haves, by bubbling through a suspension of really finely diced up lithium under inert atmosphere, argon being preferable due to its weight, compared to helium, helping to form a protective pad over the solvent system being denser than air, whereas helium would float away, and a continual purge has to be used, the same otherwise nasty cryogenic liquefied corrosive gas, in gaseous form after passing it through a column packed with quicklime, or two or three to desiccate it, until the reagent is formed and one need only add whatever one is to reduce with it plus a proton donor such as an alcohol, anhydrous isopropyl alcohol for example and its done, a nice handy color change showing when the reducing agent is spent and reaction done, ready for workup, purification etc. etc., no buggering about with something that can eat flesh off bones and leave whatever is left a hideous mass of scar tissue, just venting the gas into say, concentrated citric acid to neutralize both its chemical properties and the foul smell before it can get anywhere anyone else can smell it and call the authorities for whatever paranoid chemophobic reason your average do-gooder might have in mind (the person doing the reaction and any assistant/s would be wearing gas masks, goggles, long elbow-length under-gloves at least, along with heavy duty rubberized gloves to protect themselves, inhalation NOT recommended, as such might suggest, so its not the chemist who might smell any downwind. Not hideously toxic as such, just not something one wants in concentration in the face, not a systemic poison, but corrosive and general inhalation hazard up close and personal, easily mitigated when performing the reduction with the gas in ethereal Li suspension technique by use of acid filled scrubber tanks)
The thin, high surface area of the foil actually works better than reagent grade of larger size.
