【Frontiers in HaiChuan Chemical Technology】Significant progress has been made in the adsorption and extraction of lithium resources from low-grade salt lake brines with high magnesium-lithium ratios

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Recently, the **Engineering Technology Research Center for Comprehensive Utilization of Salt Lake Resources** at East China University of Science and Technology, led by Professor Jian Guo and Associate Professor Lin Sen, has made significant progress in the adsorption and extraction of lithium from brines in low-grade salt lakes with high magnesium-lithium ratios. The relevant research findings have been published in internationally renowned journals such as \"German Journal of Applied Chemistry\" and the \"AIChE Journal\". 　　Developing efficient lithium extraction technologies from salt lakes is of great significance for ensuring a sustainable supply of lithium resources. It is reported that, based on the properties of the aluminum-based lithium adsorbent, which is the only material used in the salt lake industry, the research team developed a framework that combines high-throughput experiments with explainable machine learning* techniques to rapidly screen potential enhancement strategies. This approach avoided the substantial workload associated with traditional trial-and-error methods, resulting in an overall increase in adsorption capacity by approximately 40% in brines from salt lakes with different characteristics. The related research work, titled “Machine learning*-assisted design and development of efficient aluminum-based lithium adsorbents from salt lakes,” was published in German Applied Chemistry. PhD student Zhang Rui and master’s student Liu Siying are the co-first authors of the paper, while Professor Lian Cheng and Associate Professor Lin Sen from the **Salt Lake Center are the co-corresponding authors. 　　Furthermore, to address the issue of low adsorption and mass transfer efficiency in industrially produced aluminum-based lithium adsorbent particles, the research team developed a high-strength, hydrophilic reverse-phase hybrid granulation technique. By establishing a quantitative relationship model among the size of the adsorbent particles, mass transfer kinetics, and lithium extraction performance, they carried out targeted design optimizations of the internal structure of these particles. As a result, low-dimensional granules were created that feature fast ion transport channels and high-density lithium adsorption sites; the wear resistance of these adsorbent particles increased by over 50%, and the time required for rapid adsorption was reduced from 5.5 hours to less than 1 hour. The related research work, titled \"Improving the Lithium Extraction Performance of Low-Dimensional Structured Salt Lake Aluminum-Based Lithium Adsorbents,\" was published in the AIChE Journal. Chen Jun, a postdoctoral researcher, is the first author of the paper, while Associate Professor Lin Sen is the corresponding author.