{"title":"Piperidinium-incorporated fabrication of high-performance polyamide nanofiltration membrane with high free volume for magnesium/lithium separation","authors":"Faizal Soyekwo, Changkun Liu, Xin Mao, Ruixin Nie","doi":"10.1016/j.memsci.2024.122940","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Efficient magnesium-lithium separation is key to extracting lithium resources from salt lake brines. However, efficient magnesium-lithium separation is constrained by the high magnesium-to-lithium ratios on the nanofiltration separation performance due to the weakened Donnan effect and inherent permeability-selectivity trade-off behaviour. To address this challenge, a dual methylpiperidinium ionic liquid was designed in this work and incorporated into polyamide networks to manipulate the structural properties of polyamide membrane for improved magnesium/lithium separation. We demonstrate that the piperidinium modification of polyamide networks not only modulated and enhanced the morphology, hydrophilicity, free volume and electropositivity, but also synergized the steric hindrance differentiation inside the membrane nanochannels. These structural advantages enabled the modified membrane to achieve high-separation performance with enhanced water permeance of 37.3 L m<sup>−2</sup> h<sup>−1</sup> bar<sup>−1</sup> and Mg<sup>2+</sup>/Li<sup>+</sup> selectivity of 30.6 (for Mg/Li mass ratio of 31.2). Molecular dynamics simulations further confirmed that the fast water transport and the difference in the ion separation behaviour are strongly correlated to the enhanced structural properties of membranes. We expect this work to provide insightful guidance for engineering high-performance membranes and make contributions in the application of nanofiltration in lithium mining from high Mg/Li ratio brines.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":368,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Science","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":8.4000,"publicationDate":"2024-05-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Membrane Science","FirstCategoryId":"5","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0376738824005349","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ENGINEERING, CHEMICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Efficient magnesium-lithium separation is key to extracting lithium resources from salt lake brines. However, efficient magnesium-lithium separation is constrained by the high magnesium-to-lithium ratios on the nanofiltration separation performance due to the weakened Donnan effect and inherent permeability-selectivity trade-off behaviour. To address this challenge, a dual methylpiperidinium ionic liquid was designed in this work and incorporated into polyamide networks to manipulate the structural properties of polyamide membrane for improved magnesium/lithium separation. We demonstrate that the piperidinium modification of polyamide networks not only modulated and enhanced the morphology, hydrophilicity, free volume and electropositivity, but also synergized the steric hindrance differentiation inside the membrane nanochannels. These structural advantages enabled the modified membrane to achieve high-separation performance with enhanced water permeance of 37.3 L m−2 h−1 bar−1 and Mg2+/Li+ selectivity of 30.6 (for Mg/Li mass ratio of 31.2). Molecular dynamics simulations further confirmed that the fast water transport and the difference in the ion separation behaviour are strongly correlated to the enhanced structural properties of membranes. We expect this work to provide insightful guidance for engineering high-performance membranes and make contributions in the application of nanofiltration in lithium mining from high Mg/Li ratio brines.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Membrane Science is a publication that focuses on membrane systems and is aimed at academic and industrial chemists, chemical engineers, materials scientists, and membranologists. It publishes original research and reviews on various aspects of membrane transport, membrane formation/structure, fouling, module/process design, and processes/applications. The journal primarily focuses on the structure, function, and performance of non-biological membranes but also includes papers that relate to biological membranes. The Journal of Membrane Science publishes Full Text Papers, State-of-the-Art Reviews, Letters to the Editor, and Perspectives.