Synthesis and Zeta potential of Nano-particle Lithium aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide Chloride Sorbent

Abstract

The significance of being able to extract lithium from brine at an efficient rate is critical to the sustainability of production of lithium ion batteries. Enhancing production of such an extraction would be a greener process than the present strip mining process. The approach in this research was to synthesize a sorbent from a nanoparticle precursor that would hypothetically lead to a nanoparticle scale lithium aluminum layered double hydroxide (LDH). This sorbent has been shown to be scalable to production extraction techniques at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, but our approach uses high surface area nanoparticle LDH. Results indicate the synthesis produced meso-scale LDH particles, confirmed by changes in the XRD scan and in SEM images. Zeta potential measurements will also be presented, which are an indicator of ability to disperse the LDH particles in water.