Yang Dingchang, Yang Yijie, Wong Toby, Iguodala Sunshine, Wang Anqi, Lovell Louie, Foglia Fabrizia, Fouquet Peter, Breakwell Charlotte, Fan Zhiyu, Wang Yanlin, Britton Melanie M, Williams Daryl R, Shah Nilay, Xu Tongwen, McKeown Neil B, Titirici Maria-Magdalena, Jelfs Kim E, Song Qilei
Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Department of Chemistry, Molecular Science Research Hub, Imperial College London, London, UK.
Nat Water. 2025;3(3):319-333. doi: 10.1038/s44221-025-00398-8. Epub 2025 Mar 12.
Membrane-based separation processes hold great promise for sustainable extraction of lithium from brines for the rapidly expanding electric vehicle industry and renewable energy storage. However, it remains challenging to develop high-selectivity membranes that can be upscaled for industrial processes. Here we report solution-processable polymer membranes with subnanometre pores with excellent ion separation selectivity in electrodialysis processes for lithium extraction. Polymers of intrinsic microporosity incorporated with hydrophilic functional groups enable fast transport of monovalent alkali cations (Li, Na and K) while rejecting relatively larger divalent ions such as Mg. The polymer of intrinsic microporosity membranes surpasses the performance of most existing membrane materials. Furthermore, the membranes were scaled up and integrated into an electrodialysis stack, demonstrating excellent selectivity in simulated salt-lake brines. This work will inspire the development of selective membranes for a wide range of sustainable separation processes critical for resource recovery and a global circular economy.
基于膜的分离工艺对于从卤水中可持续提取锂具有巨大潜力，这对于快速发展的电动汽车行业和可再生能源存储至关重要。然而，开发能够扩大规模用于工业生产的高选择性膜仍然具有挑战性。在此，我们报道了具有亚纳米级孔隙的可溶液加工聚合物膜，其在用于锂提取的电渗析过程中具有优异的离子分离选择性。引入亲水性官能团的固有微孔聚合物能够实现单价碱金属阳离子（锂、钠和钾）的快速传输，同时排斥相对较大的二价离子，如镁离子。固有微孔聚合物膜的性能超越了大多数现有膜材料。此外，这些膜已扩大规模并集成到电渗析堆栈中，在模拟盐湖卤水中表现出优异的选择性。这项工作将推动用于广泛可持续分离工艺的选择性膜的开发，这些工艺对于资源回收和全球循环经济至关重要。
