UChicago Pritzker Faculty of Molecular Engineering Asst. Prof. Chong Liu found the perfect particles for effectively isolating lithium from seawater, floor water, or different dilute sources of the mineral
As the electrical automobile market booms, the demand for lithium — the mineral required for lithium-ion batteries — has additionally soared. International lithium manufacturing has greater than tripled within the final decade. However present strategies of extracting lithium from rock ores or brines are sluggish and include excessive vitality calls for and environmental prices. In addition they require sources of lithium that are extremely concentrated to start with and are solely present in just a few international locations.
Now, researchers on the College of Chicago Pritzker Faculty of Molecular Engineering (PME) have optimized a brand new methodology for extracting lithium from extra dilute — and widespread — sources of the mineral, together with seawater, groundwater, and “flowback water” left behind from fracking and offshore oil drilling.
“Right now there is a gap between the demand for lithium and the production,” stated Chong Liu, Neubauer Household Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering and senior creator of the brand new work, printed in Nature Communications. “Our method allows the efficient extraction of the mineral from very dilute liquids, which can greatly broaden the potential sources of lithium.”
Within the new analysis, Liu and her colleagues confirmed how sure particles of iron phosphate can most effectively pull lithium out of dilute liquids. Their new findings may hasten an period of sooner, greener lithium extraction.
“Our method allows the efficient extraction of the mineral from very dilute liquids, which can greatly broaden the potential sources of lithium.” —Asst. Prof. Chong Liu
Lithium at a price
At present, most lithium utilized in lithium batteries comes from two primary extraction processes. Lithium rock ores could be mined, smashed up with heavy equipment, after which handled with acid to isolate the lithium. Lithium brine swimming pools, alternatively, use huge quantities of water pumped to the earth’s floor after which evaporated away — over the course of greater than a yr — to yield dried lithium.
“These methods aren’t particularly environmentally friendly to begin with, and if you start trying to work with less concentrated sources of lithium, they’re going to become even less efficient,” stated Liu. “If you have a brine that is 10 times more dilute, you need 10 times more briny water to get the same amount of lithium.”
Lately, Liu’s group has spearheaded a totally completely different methodology to get lithium out of dilute liquids. Their strategy isolates lithium based mostly on its electrochemical properties, utilizing crystal lattices of olivine iron phosphate. Due to its measurement, cost and reactivity, lithium is drawn into the areas within the olivine iron phosphate columns — like water being soaked into the holes in a sponge. However, if the column is designed completely, sodium ions, additionally current in briny liquids, are ignored or enter the iron phosphate at a a lot decrease stage.
Within the new work, Liu and her colleagues, together with first creator of the brand new paper Gangbin Yan, a PME graduate pupil, examined how variation in olivine iron phosphate particles impacted their skill to selectively isolate lithium over sodium.
“When you produce iron phosphate, you can get particles that are drastically different sizes and shapes,” explains Yan. “In order to figure out the best synthesis method, we need to know which of those particles are most efficient at selecting lithium over sodium.”
“We need to know which of those particles are most efficient at selecting lithium over sodium.” —PhD pupil and first creator Gangbin Yan
Not too massive, not too small
The analysis group synthesized olivine iron phosphate particles utilizing completely different strategies, leading to a variety of particle sizes spanning 20 to six,000 nanometers. Then, they divided these particles into teams based mostly on their measurement and used them to construct electrodes that might extract lithium from a weak resolution.
When iron phosphate particles had been too giant or too small, they found, they tended to let extra sodium into their buildings. That led to much less pure extractions of lithium.
“It turned out that there was this sweet spot in the middle where both the kinetics and the thermodynamics favor lithium over sodium,” stated Liu.
The findings are very important to transferring electrochemical lithium extraction towards industrial use. They counsel that researchers ought to give attention to not simply producing olivine iron phosphate, however producing olivine iron phosphate on the superb particle measurement.
“We have to keep this desired particle size in mind as we pick synthesis methods to scale up,” Liu stated. “But if we can do this, we think we can develop a method that reduces the environmental impact of lithium production and secures the lithium supply in this country.”
Different authors on the paper are Emory Apodaca, Suin Choi, Peter J. Eng, Joanne E. Stubbs, Yu Han, Siqi Zou, Mrinal Okay. Bera and Ronghui Wu of College of Chicago; Jialiang Wei and Wei Chen of Illinois Institute of Expertise; and Evguenia Karapetrova and Hua Zhou of Argonne Nationwide Laboratory.
Quotation: “Identifying critical features of iron phosphate particle for lithium preference,” Yan et al, Nature Communications, June 7, 2024. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49191-3
Funding: This work was supported by the Nationwide Science Basis and the Division of Power Workplace of Science.
Courtesy of UChicago Pritzker Faculty of Molecular Engineering. By Sarah C.P. Williams