Facet engineered Li3PO4 for lithium recovery from brines

Due to the high mineralization and low temperature of the Salt Lake brine, direct recovery of lithium from brines using lithium phosphate precipitation method faces serious challenges such as a long induction period and low efficiency. In this work, facet engineered Li3PO4 was used as a seed to enhance the lithium recovery efficiency. DFT calculations revealed that the surface energy of Li3PO4 (110) facet (1.078 J/m2) was higher than that of (101) facet (1.011 J/m2), indicating that the seed with (110) facet exposed has higher activity. On this basis, Li3PO4 with (110) crystal facet exposed was synthesized at low temperature and low lithium concentration. And 51.62% lithium was recovered by induction precipitation with this active Li3PO4 seed at a low temperature of 30 °C from Chinese Dangxiong Co Salt Lake brine. In addition, the lithium recovery rate of the active Li3PO4 seed induction precipitation was comparable to that of high-temperature precipitation at 90 °C, but the reaction time was significantly reduced.