Comparison Study of PVDF-HMn2O4 and PES-HMn2O4 Membrane-Type Adsorbents for Lithium Adsorption/Desorption

Much attention has been paid to membrane-type lithium adsorbents to overcome the shortages of the leakage of powder, poor permeability and difficult recycle for powder lithium adsorbents. In this work, a series of membrane-type adsorbents of spinel-type manganese oxides were converted from lithium manganese oxide precursor membranes by acid treatment. Precursor membranes were prepared by solvent exchange method using polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and Polyether sulphone (PES) respectively as binders, powder LiMn₂O₄ as the precursor and N,N-dimethyl acetamide (DMAc) as the solvent. The preparation conditions were investigated by changing the binder and the concentration of powder LiMn₂O_4. The surfaces and morphology of membrane-type adsorbents were observated by scanning electron microscope. The comparation of the capacities of lithium desorption from precursor and adsorption for membrane-type adsorbents based on different binders shows that PVDF is more suitable to be the binder than PES with liquid film thickness of 0.25mm, and the proper concentration of PVDF and powered LiMn₂O₄ are respectively 12% and 60%.