The production of Lithium nano powder from brines by hydrometallurgy for use in automobile batteries

Lithium has been widely used in different industries as automotive industry, battery industry, smartphones, aerospace, military industry, and other portable electronics, so it’s important to use an optimum method for extraction of this element from primary and secondary resources. Today, due to the increase in demand of car companies for producing electrical and hybrid vehicles, production of lithium batteries (Lithium-ion and Lithium-polymer batteries) with high electrical potency has became a big problem. Compounds of Lithium Cobalt Oxide (LiCoO2), Lithium Manganese Oxide (LiMn2O4), Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4), and Lithium Titanate (Li4Ti5O12) are used in these kind of batteries. The primary resources of Lithium includes Mineral stones, clay soils, sea water, and brines. Between all these resources, brines due to their suitable density of Lithium and also low aggregate cost, are significant. There are various methods for extraction of Li from brines such as precipitation, chromatography, ion-exchange, liquid-liquid extraction, and membrane process. In this paper precipitation process is used which is involves condensation, alkaline elements deposition, leaching, and secondary recovery stages and also, tuning and optimization of effective parameters such as time, temperature, kind of used acid are expressed about extraction of Lithium from brines in nano scale with density of more than 90%. Experimental validation for each of the processing steps is demonstrated.