L R AS Published on Sunday 29 March 2020 - n° 315 - Categories:battery materials
New technique for obtaining lithium: filtration
Researchers at Monash University have made a discovery that will significantly reduce the time it takes to extract lithium from brine. They have developed an innovative new filtration method based on the extraordinary sieving capacity of a living cell.
They then used a synthetic membrane imitating the ion channels of filtration. It is tuned in size and chemistry to "ion selectivity", which means that lithium ions can be quickly filtered selectively in one direction. This revolutionises the way in which lithium is extracted from brine. It takes several hours to filter, instead of months or years.
This method recovers 90% of the lithium instead of 30% with the current solar evaporation process.
https://www.pv-magazine.com/2020/03/27/australian-researchers-make-lithium-extraction-breakthrough/
PV Magazine of 27 March