Ambient-Dried Cellulose Nanofibril/H₂TiO₃ Composite Aerogel for Enhanced Lithium Capture at Seawater-Relevant pH.
4 affiliations
- 1School of Science, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi 154007, China.
- 2Key Laboratory of Bio-Based Material Science and Technology (Ministry of Education), Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China.
- 3School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiamusi University, Jiamusi 154007, China.
- 4School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001, China.
Abstract
Efficient seawater lithium harvesting requires adsorbents combining high selectivity with scalable, low-energy fabrication. Although H₂TiO₃ lithium-ion sieves (HTO-LIS) exhibit exceptional Li⁺ selectivity, their deployment is hindered by strict alkaline requirements and reliance on energy-intensive shaping processes such as freeze-drying. Herein, we report a cellulose nanofibril (CNF) composite aerogel addressing both challenges simultaneously. Ammonium phytate (AP), a bio-derived polyphosphate, serves a dual function: as a green crosslinker for CNF and as an in situ alkalinity generator, creating a localized alkaline microenvironment around immobilized HTO nanoparticles that enables efficient topotactic H⁺/Li⁺ exchange at seawater-relevant pH 8 without requiring strongly alkaline bulk conditions. Crucially, the AP-crosslinked CNF skeleton withstands capillary forces during ambient-pressure drying, preserving a hierarchical macroporous network without freeze-drying. The resulting AP-CNF@HTO monolith achieves a Li⁺ capacity of 19.08 mg g⁻¹ at pH 8, a 128.9% enhancement over pristine HTO, with excellent selectivity against competing ions in real seawater and 88.3% capacity retention after ten cycles. This work demonstrates that rational bio-based crosslinker selection can concurrently solve the alkaline microenvironment and ambient-drying challenges of HTO-LIS composites, offering an ambient-pressure-drying route with reduced reliance on energy-intensive freeze-drying for seawater lithium enrichment.
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BibTeX
@article{wang2026ambientdried,
title = {{Ambient-Dried Cellulose Nanofibril/H₂TiO₃ Composite Aerogel for Enhanced Lithium Capture at Seawater-Relevant pH.}},
author = {Xueqiao Wang and Jing Wang and Wenxuan Wang and Ruimeng Liu and Yimin Shi and Daxin Liang},
journal = {Gels (Basel, Switzerland)},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.3390/gels12100873},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929908},
note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Ambient-Dried Cellulose Nanofibril/H₂TiO₃ Composite Aerogel for Enhanced Lithium Capture at Seawater-Relevant pH.
AU - Xueqiao Wang
AU - Jing Wang
AU - Wenxuan Wang
AU - Ruimeng Liu
AU - Yimin Shi
AU - Daxin Liang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/28
JO - Gels (Basel, Switzerland)
DO - 10.3390/gels12100873
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42929908
AB - Efficient seawater lithium harvesting requires adsorbents combining high selectivity with scalable, low-energy fabrication. Although H₂TiO₃ lithium-ion sieves (HTO-LIS) exhibit exceptional Li⁺ selectivity, their deployment is hindered by strict alkaline requirements and reliance on energy-intensive shaping processes such as freeze-drying. Herein, we report a cellulose nanofibril (CNF) composite aerogel addressing both challenges simultaneously. Ammonium phytate (AP), a bio-derived polyphosphate, serves a dual function: as a green crosslinker for CNF and as an in situ alkalinity generator, creating a localized alkaline microenvironment around immobilized HTO nanoparticles that enables efficient topotactic H⁺/Li⁺ exchange at seawater-relevant pH 8 without requiring strongly alkaline bulk conditions. Crucially, the AP-crosslinked CNF skeleton withstands capillary forces during ambient-pressure drying, preserving a hierarchical macroporous network without freeze-drying. The resulting AP-CNF@HTO monolith achieves a Li⁺ capacity of 19.08 mg g⁻¹ at pH 8, a 128.9% enhancement over pristine HTO, with excellent selectivity against competing ions in real seawater and 88.3% capacity retention after ten cycles. This work demonstrates that rational bio-based crosslinker selection can concurrently solve the alkaline microenvironment and ambient-drying challenges of HTO-LIS composites, offering an ambient-pressure-drying route with reduced reliance on energy-intensive freeze-drying for seawater lithium enrichment.
SN - 2310-2861
ER -