Porous nanocomposite membranes based on functional GO with selective function for lithium adsorption

Abstract

An hybrid membranes based on functional GO nanosheet for selective adsorption lithium from compound was great potential. Here, a simple and efficient methodology was reported to obtain high stability, selectivity, and antifouling properties. More importantly, we studied the selective adsorption capacity of the fabricated membranes to lithium under a high magnesium and low lithium environment. The results showed that the fabricated membrane exhibited excellent lithium adsorption and highly selective adsorption efficiency. The fabricated membranes presented a relatively lower contact angle (67.226°) and a higher membrane flux (13.62 mL cm⁻² min⁻¹), which indicated that the fabricated membrane had a high hydrophilicity because the presence of carboxylic and hydroxyl groups of GO could enhance the interaction between the membrane and water. Moreover, the perm-selectivity results (β values were greater than 7) and regeneration ability (90.9% of the maximum adsorption capacity was retained after 10 cycles) were shown. The overall results suggested that functional GO can be considered as an effective additive for inorganic–organic composite membranes for the selective adsorption of lithium. It is worth mentioning that this methodology can be applied to selectively identify and adsorb lithium and is environmentally friendly, as it does not lead to secondary pollution.