科学家报告称，快速锂提取动作消除了对酸和高温的使用

Lightweight lithium metal is a heavy-hitting critical mineral, serving as the key ingredient in the rechargeable batteries that power phones, laptops, electric vehicles and more. As ubiquitous as lithium is in modern technology, extracting the metal is complex and expensive. A new method, developed by researchers at Penn State and recently granted patent rights, enables high-efficiency lithium extraction -- in minutes, not hours -- using low temperatures and simple water-based leaching.
轻质锂金属是一种举足轻重的关键矿物，是手机、笔记本电脑、电动汽车等可充电电池的核心成分。尽管锂在现代科技中无处不在，但提取这种金属的过程既复杂又昂贵。宾夕法尼亚州立大学的研究人员开发出一种新方法，可在低温条件下使用简单的水浸工艺实现高效锂提取——耗时仅需数分钟而非数小时，该方法近期已获得专利权。

"Lithium powers the technologies that define our modern lives -- from smartphones to electric vehicles -- and has applications in grid energy storage, ceramics, glass, lubricants, and even medical and nuclear technologies," said Mohammad Rezaee, the Centennial Career Development Professor in Mining Engineering at Penn State, who led the team that published their approach in Chemical Engineering Journal. "But its extraction must also be environmentally responsible. Our research shows that we can extract lithium, and other critical minerals, more efficiently while drastically reducing energy use, greenhouse gas emissions and waste that's difficult to manage or dispose of."
宾夕法尼亚州立大学矿业工程百年职业发展教授穆罕默德·礼萨伊领导团队在《Chemical Engineering Journal》发表了其研究方法，他表示："锂为定义现代生活的技术提供动力——从智能手机到电动汽车——并在电网储能、陶瓷、玻璃、润滑剂甚至医疗和核技术中都有应用。但其开采过程也必须对环境负责。"我们的研究表明，我们能够以更高的效率提取锂和其他关键矿物，同时大幅减少能源消耗、温室气体排放以及难以管理或处置的废弃物。

Australia, Chile and China lead the world in lithium supplies, exporting to countries competing in increasingly advanced technologies that depend on the mineral. Chile and Argentina are responsible for 97% of lithium exports to the United States, which imports more than twice what it can extract from domestic resources despite housing millions of metric tons of lithium deposits. The issue is the time, financial cost and environmental impact of extracting lithium from the rocks where it naturally occurs, according to Rezaee.
澳大利亚、智利和中国主导着全球锂供应，向依赖这种矿物的日益先进技术竞争国家出口。智利和阿根廷占美国锂进口量的97%，尽管美国本土蕴藏着数百万吨锂矿，但其进口量仍是国内开采量的两倍多。Rezaee指出，问题在于从天然含锂岩石中提取所需的时间、资金成本和环境影响。

Rezaee and his research group members, Chandima Hevapathiranage and Shihua Han, who are pursuing doctoral degrees in energy and mineral engineering, with the mining and mineral process engineering option, at Penn State, have a solution, though. With far less energy consumption and fewer harsh chemicals than traditional methods, their acid-free approach can extract more than 99% of a rock's available lithium in minutes, compared to the hours of conventional extraction that produces roughly 96% of the available lithium.
不过，Rezaee及其研究组成员Chandima Hevapathiranage和Shihua Han（两人正在宾夕法尼亚州立大学攻读能源与矿物工程博士学位，主修挖矿与矿物加工工程）提出了解决方案。与传统方法相比，他们的无酸提取法能耗更低、刺激性化学品用量更少，仅需数分钟即可从岩石中提取超过99%的可用锂，而传统提取方法耗时数小时却仅能提取约96%的锂。

"What makes this approach especially promising is its compatibility with existing industrial infrastructure," Rezaee said, explaining that the new process is designed with scalability and practicality in mind, and it does not require extreme heat or the use of acids. "It uses common materials like sodium hydroxide -- a common compound used in making soap and found in many household cleaners -- and water, and it operates at much lower temperatures than traditional techniques. That makes it not just cleaner and faster, but easier to implement at scale."
Rezaee表示："这种方法特别有前景的原因在于它与现有工业基础设施的兼容性。"他解释道，新工艺在设计时考虑了可扩展性和实用性，且不需要极端高温或使用酸类。"它使用氢氧化钠（一种常用于制造肥皂并存在于多种家用清洁剂中的常见化合物）和水等普通材料，且操作温度远低于传统技术。这不仅使其更清洁、更快速，还更容易大规模实施。"

Conventional lithium extraction involves either coaxing rock ores into giving up the metal or evaporating ponds of lithium-rich brine. Evaporation requires significant amounts of water and takes too long to match industry demands. Directly extracting lithium from mined rocks is quicker than brine evaporation but involves heating the minerals to incredibly high temperatures of 1,110 degrees Celsius -- 2,300 degrees Fahrenheit -- and maintaining the temperature for two hours. This makes the lithium mineral porous and prepares the lithium to separate from the rock. In the next step, the porous mineral is treated with sulfuric acid and heated to 482 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours. Known as sulfuric acid baking, this step eventually dissolves much of the lithium. The resulting acidic lithium solution is then treated to neutralize the acid and purify the metal.
传统的锂提取方法包括从矿石中获取金属锂或蒸发富含锂的盐水池。蒸发法需要大量水资源且耗时过长，难以满足行业需求。直接从开采的岩石中提取锂比盐湖蒸发法更快，但需将矿物加热至1,110摄氏度（2,300华氏度）的极高温度，并维持该温度两小时。这一过程会使锂矿物多孔化，为锂与岩石分离创造条件。下一步，将多孔矿物用硫酸处理，并在482华氏度下加热两小时。这一步骤称为硫酸烘烤，最终会溶解大部分锂。随后对得到的酸性锂溶液进行处理，中和酸并提纯金属。

"Each step of the conventional method, especially the high-temperature treatment, emits a substantial amount of carbon dioxide," Rezaee said, explaining that the sulfuric acid also poses environmental concerns and leaves hazardous byproducts. "The process requires significant equipment investment and has challenges for temperature control and energy recovery. Impurities lead to lithium loss, and the acidic lithium solution requires significant chemical consumption to become basic for final extraction."
常规方法的每一步，尤其是高温处理，都会排放大量二氧化碳，"Rezaee解释道，硫酸还带来了环境问题并留下了有害副产品。"该过程需要大量的Equipment投入，并在温度控制和能量回收方面存在挑战。杂质导致锂损失，而酸性锂溶液需要消耗大量化学品才能变为碱性以进行最终提取。"

When Rezaee and his team first considered improving this process, they realized they could eliminate the need for phase transformation -- the extreme heating and sulfuric acid baking that loosens lithium ions from the mineral.
当Rezaee和他的团队最初考虑改进这一流程时，他们意识到可以省去相变环节——即通过极端加热和硫酸焙烧使锂离子从矿物中脱离的传统工艺。

"We used thermodynamic modeling to understand how the lithium-bearing minerals might interact with different chemical agents, and then validated those predictions through laboratory experiments," Rezaee said. "We found that mixing the lithium-containing mineral, called spodumene, with sodium hydroxide, at relatively low temperatures converts the mineral into lithium-bearing water-soluble phases."
我们通过热力学建模来理解含锂矿物如何与不同化学试剂相互作用，随后通过实验室实验验证了这些预测，”Rezaee表示。“我们发现，在相对低温条件下将含锂矿物（称为spodumene）与氢氧化钠混合，可将该矿物转化为含锂的水溶性相。”

They also investigated the use of microwave heating for this low temperature reaction -- similar to heating food in a microwave rather than an oven -- to cut the processing time to just minutes.
他们还研究了利用微波加热进行这种低温反应——类似于用微波炉而非烤箱加热食物——从而将加工时间缩短至仅几分钟。

This reaction produces lithium sodium silicate, a compound that dissolves readily in room-temperature water. When water is added, the lithium leaches out in about a minute. Because the resulting solution is already basic, meaning non-acidic, it also eliminates the need for the chemical additions that conventional lithium extraction requires to shift from acidic to basic. The researchers can immediately add a compound that solidifies the lithium so that it can be easily collected.
该动作产生硅酸锂钠，这种化合物在室温水中极易溶解。加水后，锂大约在一分钟内析出。由于所得溶液已呈碱性（即非酸性），因此也无需像传统锂提取方法那样添加化学品来从酸性转为碱性。研究人员可以立即加入一种化合物使锂固化，从而便于收集。

According to Rezaee, the process can also work to extract lithium and two other critical minerals -- rubidium and cesium, which are used in electronics, quantum computing, solar panels, atomic clocks, satellite navigation systems, batteries and even as a rocket propellant -- from lepidolite, another rock ore. It can also extract lithium from clay sources. The team is now working toward scaling up their approach and refining the process for industrial application.
据Rezaee称，该工艺还能从另一种岩石矿石锂云母中提取锂及另外两种关键矿物——铷和铯（应用于电子设备、量子计算、太阳能板、原子钟、卫星导航系统、电池乃至火箭推进剂领域），并具备从粘土矿源提取锂的能力。该团队正致力于扩大工艺规模并优化流程以实现工业化应用。

The Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences supported this work through the George H. Deike, Jr. Research Award.
宾夕法尼亚州立大学地球与矿物科学学院通过George H. Deike Jr.研究奖资助了这项工作。