Baudino Luisa, Pedico Alessandro, Bianco Stefano, Periolatto Monica, Pirri Candido Fabrizio, Lamberti Andrea
Politecnico di Torino, Dipartimento di Scienza Applicata e Tecnologia (DISAT), Corso Duca Degli Abruzzi, 24, 10129 Torino, Italy.
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Center for Sustainable Future Technologies, Via Livorno 60, 10144 Torino, Italy.
Membranes (Basel). 2022 Feb 18;12(2):233. doi: 10.3390/membranes12020233.
The massive worldwide transition of the transport sector to electric vehicles has dramatically increased the demand for lithium. Lithium recovery by means of ion sieves or supramolecular chemistry has been extensively studied in recent years as a viable alternative approach to the most common extraction processes. Graphene oxide (GO) has also already been proven to be an excellent candidate for water treatment and other membrane related applications. Herein, a nanocomposite 12-crown-4-ether functionalized GO membrane for lithium recovery by means of pressure filtration is proposed. GO flakes were via carbodiimide esterification, then a polymeric binder was added to improve the mechanical properties. The membrane was then obtained and tested on a polymeric support in a dead-end pressure setup under nitrogen gas to speed up the lithium recovery. Morphological and physico-chemical characterizations were carried out using pristine GO and functionalized GO membranes for comparison with the nanocomposite. The lithium selectivity was proven by both the conductance and ICP mass measurements on different sets of feed and stripping solutions filtrated (LiCl/HCl and other chloride salts/HCl). The membrane proposed showed promising properties in low concentrated solutions (7 mg/L) with an average lithium uptake of 5 mg/g in under half an hour of filtration time.
全球运输部门向电动汽车的大规模转型极大地增加了对锂的需求。近年来，通过离子筛或超分子化学回收锂作为最常见提取工艺的可行替代方法已得到广泛研究。氧化石墨烯（GO）也已被证明是水处理和其他膜相关应用的优秀候选材料。在此，提出了一种用于通过压力过滤回收锂的纳米复合12-冠-4-醚功能化GO膜。通过碳二亚胺酯化法制备了GO薄片，然后添加聚合物粘合剂以改善机械性能。然后获得该膜，并在氮气气氛下的死端压力装置中在聚合物支撑体上进行测试，以加速锂的回收。使用原始GO膜和功能化GO膜进行形态学和物理化学表征，以便与纳米复合材料进行比较。通过对不同组过滤后的进料和反萃溶液（LiCl/HCl和其他氯化物盐/HCl）进行电导率和ICP质谱测量，证明了锂的选择性。所提出的膜在低浓度溶液（7 mg/L）中显示出有前景的性能，在过滤时间不到半小时的情况下，平均锂吸收量为5 mg/g。
