Advanced biomimetic nanofiltration membranes for lithium recovery with anti-janus charge structure
Yanrui Wang, Yaru Zhang, Meng Zhang, Shu Jiang, Xiaobin Tang, Heng Liang · 2025
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Description
Wang and co-authors built a membrane that pulls lithium out of salty water more cleanly, in a study published in 2025. Lithium demand outruns supply, and much of it sits in brines mixed with similar metals like cobalt and manganese. Filters that pass lithium while blocking its doubly charged rivals could cut recovery costs. Standard charged membranes suffer a built-in flaw: their uneven charge layers slow lithium and screen out the very fields meant to sort it.
Inspired by the charge mosaic inside dust storms, the team patterned the membrane's charge into tiny isolated islands. That structure generates strong local fields that speed sorting. A positively charged building block formed the islands on the membrane. The design breaks the usual trade-off between speed and selectivity. Cheaper lithium from brine would ease a bottleneck for batteries and the energy transition.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Yanrui Wang, Yaru Zhang, Meng Zhang, Shu Jiang, Xiaobin Tang, Heng Liang |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 45 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |