A novel recyclable surface ion-imprinted graphene aerogels for high selective adsorption of lithium in salt lake brine

To mitigate the growing pressure of lithium resource supply and requirement, the exploration of abundant lithium from salt lake brine has emerged as a novel avenue for lithium resource acquisition. Surface ion imprinting technology with specific recognition could achieve selective lithium adsorption. However, existing Li + -imprinted adsorption materials exhibit poor adsorption performance and difficult recovery. To address these issues, the novel recyclable Li + -imprinted graphene aerogels were synthesized by using graphene oxide as the skeleton material, and thiourea dioxide as the reducing agent, assisted by DMF and NH 3 ·H 2 O. The imprinted aerogels demonstrate excellent structural stability (bearing 10,000 times of its weight), superior adsorption capacity (31.66 mg g −1 ), high selectivity and good regeneration performance (91.0 % after six cycles). The selection factors for Li + over Na + , K + and Mg 2+ reach 10.00, 5.71 and 4.00, respectively. This is attributed to the strong metal coordination interreaction between 2-Hydroxymethyl-12-crown-4 and Li + , thereby specifically recognizing and adsorbing Li + . This research offers a fresh material for the enrichment and recovery of lithium resources in salt lake brine.