Recent progress on electro-sorption technology for lithium recovery from aqueous sources

Lithium is known as the “white petroleum” of the electrification era, and the global demand for lithium grows rapidly with the quick development of new energy industry. The aqueous solutions, such as salt lake brine, underground brine, and seawater, have large lithium reserves, thus this kind of lithium resource has become a research hotspot recently. Compared with other lithium extraction technologies, electro-sorption method shows good prospects for practical applications with advantages in the aspects of efficiency, recovery ratio, cost, and environment. Herein, this review covers recent progress on electro-sorption technology for lithium recovery from aqueous solutions, including the concept illustration, research progress of the applied working electrodes and counter electrodes, and the evaluation indicators of electro-sorption system. Meanwhile, some prospects for the development of this technology are also proposed. We hope this review is beneficial for the construction of high-efficient electrochemical lithium recovery system to achieve an adequate lithium supply in the future.