A new membrane makes it possible (and cheap)

Neither open mines on the earth’s surface or pierce the background of the ocean. The next lithium fever may not require dynamite or excavators. Rather, something simpler: a thinner membrane than a hair, designed to capture the valuable white gold that drives the new technological era in which we live.

A new path. A group of researchers from the National Argonne Laboratory of the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the University of Chicago They have created A membrane capable of extracting lithium from salt water with great efficiency and low cost.

Like hair. This membrane is made of an abundant clay, the vermiculite, which costs about $ 350 per ton. But the secret is how clay has been manipulated: the team has achieved Peel the vermiculite to two -dimensional layers, from just a Metro Metro, which then stacked one over another. They placed microscopic pillars of aluminum oxide, which maintain the stable and functional structure even under water.

How did they achieve stability? At this point you have to get a little more technical. The researchers infused the membrane with sodium cations, which changed their superficial load from neutral to positive. In this state, the membrane repels more strongly to magnesium ions (with load +2) than those of lithium (with load +1), which allows a much more precise filtration.

In addition, by adding more sodium the pores of the material are narrowed, which further favors the capture of lithium and allows only the smallest ions, such as sodium or potassium.

A very precious resource. Who has Lithium knows that part of world geopolitics dominates. If not, they tell China, that since the beginning of the century adopted a deliberate strategy large -scale investment throughout the value chain of critical minerals. The result of that bet is that, currently, China is the main world refining of 19 of the 20 strategic minerals evaluated by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

However, the way to extract it is still Very expensiveslow, pollutant and Geopolitally unstable. Today, production is in the hands of a few countries, which staggers the global supply chain. And although sea water and underground salmueras contain vast lithium reserves, extracting it has so far an impossible mission: too expensive, too inefficient. Until now.

The idea is novel, but not so much. China always carries the front, that’s undeniable. The Asian giant too The idea of extracting lithium from the sea has emergedbut with a completely different approach: a floating device that uses solar energy to boost extraction. The system, developed by the University of Nankín and known as Stles, generates pressure by solar evaporation to pass the lithium ions through a membrane with nanoparticles.

Both projects share an objective – access the lithium dissolved in the water without resorting to traditional mining – but differ in its technology: one uses selective filtration with ionic load; The other, solar perspiration as a motor force. Together, they show that the future of lithium may not be in the subsoil, but floating on the surface of the sea, driven by avant -garde science.

Dreaming of success. If it reaches the industrial scale, this technology could radically transform global access to lithium. Countries without mines but with coasts, underground salmueras or even wastewater could become new actors in the market.

In addition, technology is not only worth for lithium. According to the equipment, the same principle could be used to recover other key minerals such as nickel, cobalt and rare earth, or even to purify drinking water eliminating pollutants.

Image | Pxhere and Argonne

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