In-situ self-assemblied HTO/MXene/PSF hybrid membrane for high efficiency and selective lithium extraction from shale gas wastewater

Yuchun Ren^¹, Dandan Zhao^¹

(), Fei Zhou^⁵, Chen Fu^⁴, Yongsheng Fu^¹, Zhenglian Wu^¹, Ying Luo^⁶, Feng Sun^⁷, Xun He^³, Xuping Sun^{²^,³}

()

1School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 611756, China

2College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Shandong Normal University, Jinan 250014, China

3Center for High Altitude Medicine, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, China

4Chengdu Pollution Source Monitoring Center, Chengdu 610066, China

5Leshan Environmental Monitoring Center Station of Sichuan Province, Department of Ecology and Environment of Sichuan Province, Leshan 614000, China

6State Key Laboratory of Space Power Sources, Shanghai Institute of Space Power Sources, Shanghai 200245, China

7School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China

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A H₂TiO₃/MXene/polysulfone (HTO/MXene/PSF) hybrid membrane, with MXene enhancing HTO self-assembly, enables efficient, selective lithium extraction from shale gas wastewater, achieving 25.80 mg·g⁻¹ capacity and retaining 99.75% stability after ten cycles.

Abstract

H₂TiO₃ (HTO) emerges as a highly promising lithium-ion sieve (LIS) material for selectively and efficiently extracting lithium from liquid-phase systems. However, the practical use of conventional powdered HTO adsorbents is hindered by difficulties in recovery and titanium leaching, which limits their reusability. Herein, we design a novel HTO/MXene/polysulfone (HTO/MXene/PSF) hybrid membrane, where two-dimensional (2D) MXene nanosheets bridge PSF and HTO via enhanced hydrogen bonding and enable the in-situ self-assembly of HTO into spindle-like nanostructures. As anticipated, the hybrid membrane exhibits selective lithium adsorption, achieving a capacity of 25.80 mg·g⁻¹ from shale gas wastewater (SGW). Moreover, it maintains remarkable cyclic stability with a negligible decrease in adsorption capacity of merely 0.25% after ten consecutive adsorption–desorption cycles. Besides, filtration studies demonstrate that a membrane with a surface area of 12.56 cm² can effectively process 230 mL of SGW. Theoretical calculations reveal that hydrogen bonding and electronic interactions drive the self-assembly of HTO on MXene and further elucidate the adsorption strength and spatial hindrance mechanisms for selective lithium ion adsorption. This study introduces an innovative concept of in-situ self-assembled LIS in a hybrid membrane for lithium recovery from SGW, which is expected to inspire further research on self-assembled sieve-based adsorbents.

Keywords

lithium recovery shale gas wastewater self-assembled lithium-ion sieve H₂TiO₃/MXene hybrid membrane density functional theory

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References

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