Preparation and Adsorptive Properties of Membrane-Type Adsorbents for Lithium Recovery from Seawater

Abstract

A membrane-type adsorbent of spinel-type manganese oxide was prepared by a solvent exchange method using poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC) as a binder. PVC was dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution, after which spinel-type lithium manganese oxide was mixed with the DMF solution. The suspension was spread into a thin film and immersed in water to solidify the PVC. The membrane was treated with an HCl solution to extract lithium, resulting in a membrane-type adsorbent. The preparation conditions were studied by changing the initial PVC concentration versus DMF and lithium manganese oxide content. The membrane thickness, manganese oxide content, and tensile and abrasion strengths were measured for each membrane. A new type of adsorption cell was designed for obtaining a parallel seawater flow along the membrane-type adsorbents. The lithium adsorption experiment was carried out using natural seawater at a linear velocity of 1.25 cm/min. Placing the membrane between spacers was found to be effective in raising the lithium adsorption rate. The adsorption rate depended on the preparation conditions. The membrane prepared from an initial PVC concentration of 8%, and a PVC additive content of 20% is optimum for the adsorption of lithium in seawater. The adsorbed lithium could be easily eluted by treating with an HCl solution.

Lithium sorption properties of HMnO in seawater and wastewater

“…Lithium manganese oxide (LiMnO) was synthesized from manganese oxide and lithium hydroxide (Yoshizuka et al, 2002;Chitrakar et al, 2001a, b;Umeno et al, 2002). First, 2 L of 4 M lithium hydroxide and 100 g of manganese oxide were mixed for 24 h and then filtered.…”

Lithium recovery from brine using a λ-MnO2/activated carbon hybrid supercapacitor system

“…These adsorbents are highly selective to lithium ion and efficient for lithium recovery. However, additional process for the adsorbent such as granulation, membranization for industrial application is necessary, at the same time, leaving the concern for decreasing the capacity or the rate of lithium recovery (Umeno et al, 2002;Ryu et al, 2013b). Also, a couple of weeks of adsorption are followed by adsorbent regeneration using a strong acid.…”

Magnetically separable magnetite–lithium manganese oxide nanocomposites as reusable lithium adsorbents in aqueous lithium resources

“…Harvianto et al reported that the Li + adsorption efficiency for concentrated seawater was lower than that for seawater [36]. Table 5 lists the Li + adsorption capacities of previously studied manganese oxide composite adsorbents in seawater and brine [6,[8][9][10]. These manganese oxide composite adsorbents were fabricated by granulation or membranization methods to enable the use of powder-type adsorbents in aqueous Li resources for practical industrial applications.…”

“…Other research groups have studied membrane-type Li-adsorbing systems as alternatives to column systems. Membrane-type adsorbents have been prepared by a solvent exchange method using PVC as a binder [10]. Flat sheet [11] and polymeric reservoir ''tea bag'' configurations [12] have been studied.…”