Adsorption behavior of lithium from seawater using manganese oxide adsorbent

Abstract

The deuterium-tritium (D-T) fusion reactor system is expected to provide the main source of electricity in the future. Large amounts of lithium will be required, dependent on the reactor design concept, and alternative resources should be found to provide lithium inventories for nuclear fusion plants. Seawater has recently become an attractive source of this element and the separation and recovery of lithium from seawater by co-precipitation, solvent extraction and adsorption have been investigated. Amongst these techniques, the adsorption method is suitable for recovery of lithium from seawater, because certain inorganic ion-exchange materials, especially spinel-type manganese oxides, show extremely high selectivity for the lithium ion. In this study, we prepared a lithium adsorbent (HMn2O4) by elution of spinel-type lithium di-manganese-tetra-oxide (LiMn2O4) and examined the kinetics of the adsorbent for lithium ions in seawater using a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The intermediate, LiMn2O4, can be synthesized from LiOH.H2O and Mn3O4, from which the lithium adsorbent can subsequently be prepared via acid treatment., The adsorption kinetics become faster and the amount of lithium adsorbed on the adsorbent increases with increasing solution temperature. The thermodynamic values, δG0, δH0 and δS 0, indicate that adsorption is an endothermic and spontaneous process. © 2012 The Japan Society of Plasma Science and Nuclear Fusion Research.