Published October 24, 2023
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Mechanistic Engineering of Highly Selective COF-OEt/PSS on the HKUST-1/PSS Membrane for Lithium-Ion Extraction

Creators

  • 1. Department of Chemical Technologies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), P.O. Box 33535111, Tehran 1419733151, Iran
  • 2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran 159163-4311, Iran
  • 3. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Guilan, Rasht 41335, IR, Iran
  • 4. School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, Joondalup, Perth 6027, Western Australia, Australia
  • 5. Edith Cowan University
  • 6. Department of Chemical Engineering, Urmia University of Technology, Urmia 57166-419, Iran
  • 7. UNESCO Centre for Membrane Science and Technology, School of Chemical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney 2052, New South Wales, Australia
  • 8. University of New South Wales

Description

The substantial and unexpected increase in the demand for electric vehicles that use lithium-ion batteries has disrupted the Li supply–demand balance. Although metal/covalent organic framework (MOF/COF) membranes have shown promising performance for ion separation, their Li-ion selectivities are not high enough to meet industrial requirements. Herein, we introduce a new concept of the COF-on-MOF system as an approach to boost the Li-ion selectivity. The mechanism and efficiency of the single MOF membrane that is made of HKUST-1 functionalized with polystyrenesulfonate (PSS) have been investigated using molecular simulation. The simulation selectivities for Li+/Na+, Li+/K+, and Li+/Mg2+ were found to be 3.25, 3.5, and 6.5, respectively. The addition of the PSS-functionalized COF-OEt layer to HKUST-1/PSS provided a chance to control the membrane's pore size, electrostatic interactions on the atomic scale, and membrane–ions interactions. COF-OEt/PSS on HKUST-1/PSS showed a jump in Li+/Na+, Li+/K+, and Li+/Mg2+ selectivities of more than 143, 338, and 837, respectively. The concept of this study can be extended to other MOF and COF types, which will open up a new avenue of research for the design of ion-selective membranes.
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