Screening of polymers for lithium ions selectivity from brines

锂(Li+)在可充电锂离子电池(LIB)等关键领域以及玻璃和陶瓷、化工/制药、橡胶等主要应用领域都有应用。随着电池技术的革命，对锂的需求呈指数级增长，电动汽车保持着最高的增长势头。然而，目前锂的供应水平在供需关系上落在中低档的边缘。供应不足的部分原因是，目前使用蒸发的提取过程效率较低，在开放的池塘中需要数年时间才能将锂浓缩到溶液中。在清洁能源与化石燃料的竞争中，为了达到电动汽车的清洁标准，锂的提炼对环境的影响是电池制造面临的一个主要问题。挑战是设计一种新的锂提取工艺，比目前的操作更高效、更快。Summit Nanotech正在开发一种更环保、更清洁的锂提取工艺，化学强度较低的阶段。Summit Nanotech的工艺涉及一种纳米膜，它将对盐水进行预处理，并将锂浓缩到溶液中。然而，纳米膜不会提取特定的离子(例如，镁离子等)，这些离子与锂一起穿过膜。虽然用于合成氧化镁的镁离子也具有很高的商业价值，但商业品级的锂离子应该不含任何其他离子。因此，Li+应与溶液分离。利用聚合物或金属氧化物的吸附过程由于其高效率而被广泛应用于水处理。在这个项目中，我们将测试几种聚合物在存在镁离子和其他可能通过纳米膜的离子的情况下对Li+的选择性。寻找吸附Li+的最佳官能团和最佳环境条件(如温度、pH等)。是这个项目的主要目标。到这个项目结束时，我们可以确定纳米膜下游吸附过程的前两个候选聚合物。将聚合物与Summit Nanotech的纳米膜在吸附过程中开发的集成将导致更环保、更快和更高效的锂提取。

Lithium (Li+) finds applications in crucial areas like rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and major applications in glass and ceramics, chemicals/pharmaceuticals, rubbers, etc. The demand for lithium is exponentially increasing as the revolution in battery technologies, and electric cars are keeping the highest momentum. However, the current supply level of lithium falls in the borderline of low-to-medium in supply and demand. This deficit in supply is, in part, due to the low efficiency of the current extraction processes using evaporation that takes years in open ponds to concentrate lithium in the solution. The environmental impact of lithium extraction is a major issue facing battery manufacturing to meet the clean standard of electric cars in the race for clean energy as opposed to fossil fuels. The challenge is to design a new lithium extraction process that is more efficient and faster than the current operations. Summit Nanotech is developing a greener and cleaner lithium extraction process with less chemical intense stages. Summit Nanotech's process involves a nanomembrane that would precondition the brine and concentrate the lithium in the solution. However, the nanomembrane does not extract specific ions (e.g., Mg2+, etc.), which pass through the membrane with the lithium. While Mg2+ ion has high commercial value too as it is used for the synthesis of MgO, the commercial grade Li+ should be free of any other ions. Hence, the Li+ should be separated from the solution. Adsorption processes using polymers or metal oxides are commonly used for water treatment due to their high efficiency. In this project, we will test several polymers for their selectivity for Li+ in the presence of Mg2+ and other ions that may pass through the nanomembrane. Finding the optimum functional groups for the Li+ adsorption and the optimum environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, pH, etc.) is the main goal of this project. By the end of this project, we can identify the top 2 candidate polymers for adsorption process downstream the nanomembrane. Integration of the polymers in the adsorption process developed in this work with Summit Nanotech's nanomembrane will lead to greener, faster, and more efficient lithium extraction.