Self-Driven Lithium Extraction by Directional Liquid Transport Nonwoven

Lithium extraction from seawater/brine has attracted increasing attention because of the abundant reserves. However, most extraction technologies require extra energy consumption to enrich lithium in solution. Here, we develop a self-driven lithium extraction method by a composite asymmetric nonwoven (CAN) with directional liquid transport functionality. CAN consists of one hydrophobic fibrous layer containing Li-ion sieve particles and one hydrophilic fibrous layer. As a result, solution containing various types of ions can spontaneously transport through CAN from the hydrophobic to the hydrophilic layer, absorbing Li-ions in the hydrophobic layer. CAN exhibits high Li+ selective adsorption capacity, good chemical stability, easy recyclability and long service life. Importantly, an extremely low energy of ~1.631 J is consumed on extracting 1 mg lithium ion by our method using CAN. This work opens a great promise of saving huge energy cost on lithium extraction from seawater or salt lakes.