AN OVERVIEW OF METHODS FOR LITHIUM SEPARATION

Abstract

Lithium (Li) is the lightest metal in nature. Natural lithium contains two stable isotopes 6Li (7.43%) and 7Li (92.57%), both playing a crucial role in the nuclear industry. Because of its high reactivity, pure elemental lithium is not found in nature. Instead, it may be seen as a constituent of salts or other compounds. Similarly, commercial lithium is available as lithium carbonate, a stable substance easily converted to other salts or chemicals. Production, processing, and purification of lithium are costly processes. The need to separate lithium appeared with the industry's transition from non-renewable to non-polluting. Recently, new techniques for lithium recovery have been developed at the laboratory scale with the potential for industrial production, such as adsorption-desorption cycling and diffusion dialysis pulsed electrochemical intercalation, and membrane separations [J. Hou et al., 2021]. The membrane-based separation processes have produced superior results for extracting Li+ and lithium isotopes enrichment. This overview will integrate the methods for lithium isotope separation using different types of membranes and their advantages and disadvantages.