I-Corps: Novel Nano-Framework for Lithium

该I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力对于锂生产商来说意义重大，这些生产商可以从卤水和盐水中选择性地提取和有效回收高品位锂，从而对锂市场产生重大影响。拟议的研究将有助于了解当前锂提取技术的技术挑战、需求和改进。培训过程将帮助研究生提高创业技能，学习如何与学术界、工业部门、客户和公众合作。预计开发的技术将在环境，医疗保健和能源领域找到更广泛的商业应用。拟议创新的客户可能是任何生产盐水溶液的公司。石油公司和锂生产商是这一创新的主要目标。所提出的创新实现了一种新的技术，该技术将从盐水溶液中选择性地提取锂，从而导致高锂回收率和低成本生产，并将锂转化为其最终产品碳酸锂和氢氧化锂。该I-Corps项目从具有分子筛和对锂的选择性化学亲和力的新型配位聚合物框架开发纤维垫，提供快速和有效的锂提取和回收。预计全球对锂的需求将大幅增长，原因是对储能、电动自行车、工具电气化和其他电池密集型应用的需求增加。从硬岩和卤水矿床中提取锂的传统操作不太可能应对未来的锂市场以满足当前的需求。从硬岩矿床中开采锂需要很高的运营成本，尽管其技术要求低，加工时间短。目前的盐水操作也是资本密集型的，产生高品位锂的生产需要大量的前置时间。由于其高选择性，快速提取能力以及适用于任何形状和大小的盐水池的可行性，所提出的创新是独一无二的。该项目目前的重点是开发具有定制孔隙率和高密度化学亲和力的纤维垫，以展示其从盐溶液和海水中选择性提取锂离子的实用性和多功能性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is significant for lithium producers that can selectively extract and recover efficiently high-grade lithium from brine and salt water, resulting in a significant impact on the lithium market. The proposed research will enable understanding of the technology challenges, needs, and improvement in current lithium extraction technologies. The training process will help graduate students to improve their entrepreneurial skills, learn how to work with academia, industrial sectors, customers and the public. The developed technology is expected to find broader commercial applications in environmental, healthcare, and energy sectors. The customer of the proposed innovation is potentially any company that produces brine solution. Oil companies and lithium producers are the key targets for this innovation. The proposed innovation enables a novel technology that would selectively extract lithium from brine solution resulting in high lithium recovery and low-cost production and conversion of lithium to its end products, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.This I-Corps project develops a fibrous mat from a novel coordination polymer framework that possesses molecular sieving and selective chemical affinity to lithium, providing fast and efficient lithium extraction and recovery. The global demand for lithium is expected to witness substantial growth owing to its increased demand for energy storage, electronic bikes, electrification of tools, and other battery-intense applications. It is unlikely that traditional lithium extraction operations from hard rock and brine deposits will be able to respond to future lithium markets to meet current demands. Mining lithium from hard rock deposits requires high operating cost regardless of its low technology requirements and short processing time. The current brine operations are also more capital intensive, incur significant lead times to generate high grade lithium production. The proposed innovation is unique due to its high selectivity, rapid extraction ability, and the feasibility to apply into any shape and size brine ponds. The current stage of the project focuses on developing the fibrous mat with tailored porosity and high-density chemical affinity to demonstrate its utility and versatility for selective extraction of lithium ions from salt solutions and seawater.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.