Lithium iron manganese oxide as an adsorbent for capturing lithium ions in hybrid capacitive deionization with different electrical modes

In this paper, studies on extraction of lithium using a new desalination technology are presented. We discovered novel spinel type material based on lithium-manganese and iron compounds that was prepared by high temperature sintering method. The structure and porosity of the adsorbents were investigated by SEM, EDS, XRD and BET analyses, while the pore size distribution was calculated according to the OFT model. The adsorbent with molar ratio of Li/Mn and Li/Fe of 1.5:1 exhibit the best structure performances. This material was used to build a negatively polarized electrode that allowed 32 mg/g salt adsorption capacity for LiCl as well as 16 mg/g and 0 mg/g for NaCl and KCL, respectively. Additionally, developed system was applied to removal lithium ions from multicomponent solution. To do this, the different electric sequences were employed. By application modified electrical mode it could be possible release lithium ions from multicomponent solutions with over 76% efficiency and reduce the ratio Na:K:Li from 227:1.1:1 to 2.9:0:1 after one cycle of the separation process.