| Project/Area Number |
23K19183
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Review Section |
0401:Materials engineering, chemical engineering, and related fields
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
Xu Ping 神戸大学, 先端膜工学研究センター, 特命助教 (40978706)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2023-08-31 – 2025-03-31
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| Project Status |
Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000)
Fiscal Year 2024: ¥390,000 (Direct Cost: ¥300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥90,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000、Indirect Cost: ¥300,000)
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| Keywords | Lithium extraction / Nanofiltration membrane / Salt lake brines / Mg2+/Li+ separation / High efficiency |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
Efficient lithium extraction is important to overcome the shortage of lithium supply caused by increasing demand in the energy sector. The efficient separation of Mg2+/Li+ is the key to lithium extraction from salt lake brine. The research propose aims to optimize the NF membrane with controlled separation performance by modifying the substrate layer, which is rarely realized among state-of-art literature reports. This newly proposed NF membrane is expected to achieve rapid Mg2+ removal and accelerated Li+ enrichment, which is an ideal choice for extracting high-purity lithium products.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The project mainly focuses on improving the Mg2+/Li+ separation efficiency of nanofiltration (NF) membranes by adjusting the base layer. We designed a polyphenol-metal-assisted method to regulate the structure of polyethylenimine (PEI)-based polyamide NF membranes. Tannic acid (TA) was first deposited onto the substrate, followed by the impregnation of the Cu2+ ions-incorporated aqueous PEI monomer solution to establish ternary interactions among PEI, TA, and Cu2+ ions. Based on the synergetic effect of Donnan exclusion and size sieving, the resultant PA-TA-Cu membrane has a large rejection difference between MgCl2 and LiCl. Furthermore, the NF membrane also exhibited excellent long-term stability. This study provides an efficient strategy for lithium extraction from salt-lake brines.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
This year, we designed a polyphenol-metal-assisted method to regulate the structure of PEI-based polyamide NF membranes. It was found that the coordination interactions between TA, PEI, and Cu2+ ions efficiently improved the distribution and loading of PEI monomers on the substrate. In addition, the Cu2+ ions severely reduced the activity of the amino groups and served as positive charge centers. The prepared membrane exhibits competitive Li+/Mg2+ separation performance and has significant potential for lithium recovery from salt lake brines. The basic knowledge of the formation and modification of membrane and membrane separation mechanisms has been mastered. Therefore, it is judged that the current progress of the project is generally smooth.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Based on these previous results, this project will be further continued by controlling the formation conditions of the polyamide layer：
（1）To investigate the influence of monomer concentration on the morphology and properties of the polyamide layer.
（2）To examine the effect of reaction time on the formation and characteristics of the polyamide layer.
（3）To optimize the membrane formation conditions to achieve superior performance in terms of permeability, selectivity, and mechanical strength.
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