Abstract
Lithium recovery is imperative to accommodate the increase in lithium demand. Salt lake brine contains a large amount of lithium and is one of the most important sources of lithium metal. In this study, Li(2)CO(3), MnO(2), and TiO(2) particles were mixed, and the precursor of a manganese-titanium mixed ion sieve (M-T-LIS) was prepared by a high-temperature solid-phase method. M-T-LISs were obtained by DL-malic acid pickling. The adsorption experiment results noted single-layer chemical adsorption and maximum lithium adsorption of 32.32 mg/g. From the Brunauer-Emmett-Teller and scanning electron microscopy results, the M-T-LIS provided adsorption sites after DL-malic acid pickling. In addition, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared results showed the ion exchange mechanism of the M-T-LIS adsorption. From the results of the Li(+) desorption experiment and recoverability experiment, DL-malic acid was used to desorb Li(+) from the M-T-LIS with a desorption rate of more than 90%. During the fifth cycle, the Li(+) adsorption capacity of the M-T-LIS was more than 20 mg/g (25.90 mg/g), and the recovery efficiency was higher than 80% (81.42%). According to the selectivity experiment, the M-T-LIS had good selectivity for Li(+) (adsorption capacity of 25.85 mg/g in the artificial salt lake brine), which indicates its good application potential.