Solar-Driven Lithium Extraction, Desalination, and Brine Separation
This community develops materials and processes to extract lithium from brines, desalinate seawater, and separate ions using solar energy, capacitive deionization, and membrane technologies.
The work centers on creating selective adsorbents, porous carbons, and specialized membranes to isolate lithium from complex salt-lake brines and seawater. A major parallel thread involves solar-driven interfacial evaporation for water purification and steam generation. Recurring materials include graphene oxide, activated carbon, and polyamide membranes, while key methods involve capacitive deionization, bipolar membrane electrodialysis, and photothermal conversion. The research frequently addresses the challenge of separating lithium from magnesium and other competing ions in low-quality brine sources, aiming for high selectivity and zero liquid discharge in industrial water treatment and resource recovery applications.
The largest share of the community's output is found in lithium research, accounting for 1.8% of all lithium research, with 4,351 papers here. Carbon and chlorine are the next most represented elements, contributing 1,970 and 913 papers respectively.
The community comprises 10,543 papers, publishing most frequently in Desalination, Separation and Purification Technology, and Chemical Engineering Journal.
Recent work continues to focus on novel membrane designs for ion selectivity, advanced photothermal materials for solar evaporation, and new strategies for purifying lithium from low-quality brines.