(Reference image by Benjamín Núñez González, Wikimedia Commons). To address this issue, the team led by Zhiping Lai tried a method that had never been used before to extract lithium ions. They employed an electrochemical cell containing a ceramic membrane made from lithium lanthanum titanium oxide (LLTO). The ceramic membrane’s crystal structure contains holes just wide enough to let lithium ions pass through while blocking larger metal ions In a paper published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science , the researchers explain that the membrane’s crystal structure contains holes just wide enough to let lithium ions pass through while blocking larger metal ions. The cell itself, on the other hand, contains three compartments. Seawater flows into a central feed chamber, where positive lithium ions pass through the LLTO membrane into a side compartment that contains a buffer solution and a copper cathode coated with platinum and ruthenium. At […]