Lithium is often called “white gold” – and for good reason. As electrification accelerates (electric mobility, stationary storage, grid applications), demand is rising – and so is the need to recover lithium sustainably from complex aqueous resources such as brines, process waters, and industrial streams.
Electrochemical lithium-ion extraction is a particularly promising route because it can offer high selectivity, good energy efficiency, and compatibility with modular, electrically driven process concepts.
A new study from the INM Research Department Energy Materials, in collaboration with Leibniz INP and Prof. Michael Naguib’s group at Tulane University (USA), has now been published as a cover feature in the most recent issue of ACS Energy Letters. We report a new approach to electrochemical lithium-ion extraction using interlayer-tailored alkyl-MXenes. MXenes are a rapidly growing family of 2D materials that uniquely allow the confinement space between individual layers to be engineered – for example, by anchoring molecules within the interlayer region. This interlayer design improves lithium-ion selectivity over competing ions during electrochemical operation, addressing a key challenge for lithium recovery from chemically complex water matrices.
The study highlights how tunable MXenes can serve as a versatile platform for next-generation electrodes in efficient and selective ion separation. By adjusting the interlayer environment, the work demonstrates a flexible materials strategy that can be adapted to future electrochemical ion-separation and resource-recovery technologies.
