Study of low manganese solution loss HAMO@ZrO2 via experimental and theory methodology

Abstract

Lithium, being the lightest element in nature, has garnered attention for its potential to recover Li+ from brine. One of the promising materials in this context is spinel-structured lithium manganese oxide. Herein, a novel ZrO2 shell/Al3+ doped H1.6Mn1.6O4 core lithium ion sieve, namely, HAMO@ZrO2, was successfully prepared. XRD, SEM, HR-TEM, and XPS were used to characterize the morphological properties and crystal structure of HAMO@ZrO2. The equilibrium adsorption capacity (Qe) of HAMO@ZrO2 was found to be 36.89 mg·g−1. Furthermore, desorption equilibrium was achieved within 40 min when LAMO@ZrO2 was immersed in a 0.05 mol·L−1H+ solution, resulting in reduced manganese dissolution from 2.38 % to 1.4 %. The structural stability of HAMO@ZrO2 was explained using density functional theory (DFT), where the total structure energy was carefully estimated. Even after ten adsorption-desorption cycles, the Li+ adsorption capacity of HAMO@ZrO2 was sustained at 29.69 mg·g−1. The dissolution loss of Mn2+ (RMn2+) was less than 2 %, demonstrating the effective regeneration property of HAMO@ZrO2. In addition to its impressive properties, HAMO@ZrO2 exhibited high selectivity for Li+ over hetero-atoms in artificial brine. These findings make HAMO@ZrO2 a promising candidate for Li+ recovery applications.