Jeffrey Catalano and Meret Aeppli have received a seed grant to launch a new collaboration using iron-containing clay minerals to recover lithium from water while locking away harmful contaminants.
In this project, Jeff (Washington University in St. Louis) and Meret work together to design and test special clay minerals that can both capture lithium from water and lock away harmful contaminants. These clays contain iron in a chemically reduced form, which makes them very reactive.
Early work with natural clays showed promise but also some limits: cycling the iron between reduced and oxidized states helps the clays bind and release lithium, but some lithium gets trapped for good. Likewise, reduced clays can repel negatively charged contaminants and stop reacting before they fully remove them from the water.
To overcome these issues, the team will build clays with tailored composition, structure, and charge using hydrothermal synthesis and controlled electrochemical reduction–oxidation. This tunable approach aims to create clay minerals that enable efficient, reversible lithium recovery while maximizing the permanent sequestration of contaminants. For more information, check out the project description.