Issue 31, 2017, Issue in Progress

Lithium adsorption performance of a three-dimensional porous H2TiO3-type lithium ion-sieve in strong alkaline Bayer liquor

Abstract

Removing lithium from the Bayer liquor for ensuring good alumina product quality demands a special lithium ion-sieve (LIS) with good stability in a strong alkaline medium. In this study, a three-dimensional porous H2TiO3-type LIS (porous-HTO) prepared by a polystyrene (PS) colloidal microspheres template was applied to adsorb Li+ from the strong alkaline Bayer liquor. XRD and SEM results confirm the fine stability of porous-HTO in strong alkaline medium, and the regeneration tests show that more than 64 mg g−1 lithium adsorption capacity still remains even after 5 cycles of lithiation–delithiation in the simulation Bayer liquor. The lithium adsorption processes of porous-HTO and bare H2TiO3-type LIS (bare-HTO) both fit the pseudo-second-order model, but the adsorption capacity and the adsorption rate of the porous-HTO are much better than those of the bare-HTO. For porous-HTO, the adsorption rate constant is 0.02357 g mg−1 h−1 and the equilibrium adsorption capacity is 76.3 mg g−1, while for bare-HTO, the adsorption rate constant is 0.009682 g mg−1 h−1 and the equilibrium adsorption capacity is only 44.8 mg g−1. The lithium selectivity tests demonstrate that the coexisting ions including Na+, K+, AlO2, SiO32− in the simulation Bayer liquor have low influence on lithium adsorption. The simulation Bayer liquors with Li+ ions of 56.00, 30.00 and 5.00 mg L−1 are all reduced to below 1.00 mg L−1 by virtue of one-time-adsorption of porous-HTO at various solid to liquid ratios of 1.0, 0.5 and 0.1 g L−1, respectively.

Graphical abstract: Lithium adsorption performance of a three-dimensional porous H2TiO3-type lithium ion-sieve in strong alkaline Bayer liquor

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
24 Jan 2017
Accepted
20 Mar 2017
First published
28 Mar 2017
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

RSC Adv., 2017,7, 18883-18891

Lithium adsorption performance of a three-dimensional porous H2TiO3-type lithium ion-sieve in strong alkaline Bayer liquor

X. Xu, Y. Zhou, M. Fan, Z. Lv, Y. Tang, Y. Sun, Y. Chen and P. Wan, RSC Adv., 2017, 7, 18883 DOI: 10.1039/C7RA01056G

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