Researchers at the University of Chicago are throwing iron phosphate life preservers to valuable lithium found in seawater, groundwater, and other sources of water.
The project's summary touts high potential for a harvesting process that could greatly aid the transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles, also providing an alternative to foreign supply chains that dominate the market.
"Our method allows the efficient extraction of the mineral from very dilute liquids, which can greatly broaden the potential sources of lithium," assistant professor Chong Liu said in a lab report.
Iron phosphate is created by the combination of phosphorus and oxygen with iron. The Chicago experts have found that it can pull lithium out of various sources of water, even flowback from fracking (explained here by the Natural Resources Defense Council) and offshore drilling, using an electrochemical process.
Part of the breakthrough arrived by finding the right size of olivine iron phosphate particles that can extract lithium instead of sodium. The goal is to limit the amount of sodium allowed into the phosphate, producing purer lithium yields.
The experts analyzed particle sizes from 20 nanometers to 6,000 nanometers. For reference, a sheet of paper is around 100,000 nanometers thick, according to the National Nanotechnology Initiative. The particles were grouped by size and used to construct electrodes, which in turn pulled lithium from a "weak solution," all per the University of Chicago summary.
"When you produce iron phosphate, you can get particles that are drastically different sizes and shapes," study first author and doctoral student Gangbin Yan said in the report.
Finding the size that was just right — akin to Goldilocks — made the difference.
"It turned out that there was this sweet spot in the middle where both the kinetics and the thermodynamics favor lithium over sodium," Liu said.
Better lithium harvesting is being researched in other labs, as well. Princeton experts are gathering the metal on special strings that are dipped into briney water, utilizing evaporation.
Common lithium mining involves invasive processes, as Euronews explained, which often include brine pools to isolate the material. Other techniques use acids, as the Chicago report noted. Regardless, EVs powered by lithium-ion batteries are still better for the environment and provide cost savings over time compared to gas guzzlers, as noted by an article from The Guardian.
Any improvements to lithium gathering will only help to reduce air pollution further. That's important because experts at the Natural Resources Defense Council report that planet-warming gases are making heat waves more intense.
In fact, they "have been the top cause of U.S. weather fatalities, on average, over the past 30 years," per the council.
Chicago is no stranger to boiling, hazardous temperatures. A historic heat wave in 1995 killed hundreds of people. The mercury regularly rose to beyond 100 degrees Fahrenheit from July 12-15, changing the way city and weather officials respond to heat emergencies, according to the National Weather Service.
Now the Chicago university experts think that future research should focus on perfecting the size of iron phosphate particles to maximize lithium gathering, which is essential to providing cleaner energy.
"If we can do this, we think we can develop a method that reduces the environmental impact of lithium production and secures the lithium supply in this country," Liu said in the summary.
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