Green lithium: photoelectrochemical extraction

Zhongxiao Li; Zhen Li; Hao Huang; Yunduo Yao; Bilawal Khan; Ye Zhu; Kuo-Wei Huang; Zhiping Lai; Jr-Hau He

doi:10.1186/s43074-023-00100-9

Green lithium: photoelectrochemical extraction

Zhongxiao Li (Co-first Author), Zhen Li (Co-first Author), Hao Huang (Co-first Author), Yunduo Yao, Bilawal Khan, Ye Zhu, Kuo-Wei Huang^*, Zhiping Lai^*, Jr-Hau He^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Materials Science and Engineering

Research output: Journal Publications and Reviews › RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

65 Downloads (CityUHK Scholars)

Abstract

Lithium (Li) is an essential element in modern energy production and storage devices. Technology to extract Li from seawater, which contains ~ 230 billion tons of Li, offers a solution to the widespread concern regarding quantitative and geographical limitations of future Li supplies. To obtain green Li from seawater, we propose an unassisted photoelectrochemical (PEC) Li extraction system based on an III-V-based triple-junction (3J) photoelectrode and a Li-ion selective membrane with only sunlight as an input. A light-harvesting/catalysis decoupling scheme yielded a 3J photoelectrode with excellent light-harvesting and catalysis reaction capabilities and superb stability over the 840 h of the extraction process. It allows the system to successfully enrich seawater Li by 4,350 times (i.e., from 0.18 ppm to 783.56 ppm) after three extraction stages. The overall reaction of the unassisted PEC green Li extraction system achieved 2.08 mg kJ⁻¹ of solar-to-Li efficiency and 3.65% of solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. © The Author(s) 2023.

Original language	English
Article number	23
Journal	PhotoniX
Volume	4
Online published	10 Jul 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1186/s43074-023-00100-9
Publication status	Published - 1 Dec 2023

Research Keywords

Green Li
Photoelectrochemical
Seawater
Unassisted Li extraction

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This full text is made available under CC-BY 4.0. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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title = "Green lithium: photoelectrochemical extraction",

abstract = "Lithium (Li) is an essential element in modern energy production and storage devices. Technology to extract Li from seawater, which contains ~ 230 billion tons of Li, offers a solution to the widespread concern regarding quantitative and geographical limitations of future Li supplies. To obtain green Li from seawater, we propose an unassisted photoelectrochemical (PEC) Li extraction system based on an III-V-based triple-junction (3J) photoelectrode and a Li-ion selective membrane with only sunlight as an input. A light-harvesting/catalysis decoupling scheme yielded a 3J photoelectrode with excellent light-harvesting and catalysis reaction capabilities and superb stability over the 840 h of the extraction process. It allows the system to successfully enrich seawater Li by 4,350 times (i.e., from 0.18 ppm to 783.56 ppm) after three extraction stages. The overall reaction of the unassisted PEC green Li extraction system achieved 2.08 mg kJ−1 of solar-to-Li efficiency and 3.65% of solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2023.",

keywords = "Green Li, Photoelectrochemical, Seawater, Unassisted Li extraction",

author = "Zhongxiao Li and Zhen Li and Hao Huang and Yunduo Yao and Bilawal Khan and Ye Zhu and Kuo-Wei Huang and Zhiping Lai and Jr-Hau He",

year = "2023",

month = dec,

day = "1",

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language = "English",

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TY - JOUR

T1 - Green lithium

T2 - photoelectrochemical extraction

AU - Li, Zhongxiao

AU - Li, Zhen

AU - Huang, Hao

AU - Yao, Yunduo

AU - Khan, Bilawal

AU - Zhu, Ye

AU - Huang, Kuo-Wei

AU - Lai, Zhiping

AU - He, Jr-Hau

PY - 2023/12/1

Y1 - 2023/12/1

N2 - Lithium (Li) is an essential element in modern energy production and storage devices. Technology to extract Li from seawater, which contains ~ 230 billion tons of Li, offers a solution to the widespread concern regarding quantitative and geographical limitations of future Li supplies. To obtain green Li from seawater, we propose an unassisted photoelectrochemical (PEC) Li extraction system based on an III-V-based triple-junction (3J) photoelectrode and a Li-ion selective membrane with only sunlight as an input. A light-harvesting/catalysis decoupling scheme yielded a 3J photoelectrode with excellent light-harvesting and catalysis reaction capabilities and superb stability over the 840 h of the extraction process. It allows the system to successfully enrich seawater Li by 4,350 times (i.e., from 0.18 ppm to 783.56 ppm) after three extraction stages. The overall reaction of the unassisted PEC green Li extraction system achieved 2.08 mg kJ−1 of solar-to-Li efficiency and 3.65% of solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. © The Author(s) 2023.

AB - Lithium (Li) is an essential element in modern energy production and storage devices. Technology to extract Li from seawater, which contains ~ 230 billion tons of Li, offers a solution to the widespread concern regarding quantitative and geographical limitations of future Li supplies. To obtain green Li from seawater, we propose an unassisted photoelectrochemical (PEC) Li extraction system based on an III-V-based triple-junction (3J) photoelectrode and a Li-ion selective membrane with only sunlight as an input. A light-harvesting/catalysis decoupling scheme yielded a 3J photoelectrode with excellent light-harvesting and catalysis reaction capabilities and superb stability over the 840 h of the extraction process. It allows the system to successfully enrich seawater Li by 4,350 times (i.e., from 0.18 ppm to 783.56 ppm) after three extraction stages. The overall reaction of the unassisted PEC green Li extraction system achieved 2.08 mg kJ−1 of solar-to-Li efficiency and 3.65% of solar-to-hydrogen efficiency. © The Author(s) 2023.

KW - Green Li

KW - Photoelectrochemical

KW - Seawater

KW - Unassisted Li extraction

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U2 - 10.1186/s43074-023-00100-9

DO - 10.1186/s43074-023-00100-9

M3 - RGC 21 - Publication in refereed journal

SN - 2662-1991

VL - 4

JO - PhotoniX

JF - PhotoniX

M1 - 23

ER -

Green lithium: photoelectrochemical extraction

Abstract

Research Keywords

Publisher's Copyright Statement

UN SDGs

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