One of the critical keys for a sustainable economy is developing a technology based on lithium energy storage. Although the demand for lithium has drastically increased, the shortage of economically available lithium sources is a challenge for the further growth of Li-based energy storage devices. Seawater as a natural source is estimated to possess approx. 230 billion tons of lithium, potentially a solution for the Li scarcity. However, low concentration of Li in the seawater (~0.170 mg/L) is a concern for economically extractable Li. Current Li extraction methods from the sea -electrochemical and membrane separation techniques, lack low-cost, environmentally sustainable lithium recovery. We have developed three-dimensional organic-silicon oxide nanoporous microscale particles doped with manganese oxide (3D-h-MnO2-SOx), which showed the potential of concentrating and extracting lithium from simulated seawater in a single step. Through electron microscopy measurements, we confirmed the formation of lithium chloride dendrites and crystals at the 3D-h-MnO2-SOx surface with a simultaneous reduction in the ionic conductivity of the water. We further plan to investigate the effect of MnO2 concentration, incubation time, competing metal ions, temperature and pH to optimize the lithium extraction from the seawater. The quantification of Li will be performed using atomic absorption spectrophotometry and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). Finally, 3D-h-MnO2-SOx could be a new cost-effective, eco-friendly, and faster method to recover lithium from natural sources.

Concentrating, recovering, and quantification of lithium from simulated seawater using three-dimensional MnO2-silicon oxide nanoporous particles

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