Lithium-Aluminum Layered Double Hydroxide Chlorides: Structural and Thermodynamic Studies to Understand Dynamics, Functionality, and Applications in Lithium Adsorption

The invention of the Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has been a panacea for the development and adoption of renewable energy technologies, mobile energy storage, and electrified transportation. While LIBs have made an electrified future possible, questions have risen about the inherent "greenness" of the technology. Multiple precursor materials of LIBs are detrimental to the environment due to their production from conventional mining. This inherently contradicts the message of renewable technologies and electrification, where they are the substitute for polluting and climate altering fossil fuel industries. Without the development of sustainable and environmentally friendly processes of material extraction the "green revolution" will remove one harmful industry for another. A promising material, lithium aluminum layered double hydroxide chlorides (LDH), has been found that offers a better way to extract the precursor material lithium. To bring this material to commercial scale use and replace other detrimental methods fundamental details about the material must be determined. Characterization of the material was performed via X-ray diffraction, Fourier Transform-Infrared spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric analysis, Differential Scanning Calorimetry, and neutron scattering. Testing of the material for lithium adsorption was performed at laboratory batch scale and column scale with analysis performed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry. The combination of synthetic development, advanced characterization techniques, and systematic adsorption studies has allowed for the development of an environmentally friendly, cheap, and effective lithium ion adsorption material.