The demand for lithium is soaring worldwide.
As the key ingredient in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, smartphones, and energy storage systems, lithium is essential for the clean energy transition.
Yet, extracting it has long been a challenge. Traditional methods, whether mining ore or pumping brine from underground salt lakes, are often expensive, inefficient, and harmful to the environment.
A new study published in Advanced Functional Materials introduces a cleaner, more efficient way to recover lithium—using the power of the sun.
The method centers on a solar-powered evaporator that pulls lithium out of saltwater while also purifying it into drinkable freshwater.
At the heart of the process is a special material called λ-MnO₂, a form of manganese dioxide.
This material has a strong chemical attraction to lithium, allowing it to capture lithium ions from salty water while leaving behind other minerals.
At the same time, the system produces desalinated water that meets the World Health Organization’s standards for safe drinking water.
In real-world field tests, the results were striking. The method achieved nearly 90% selectivity for lithium, meaning it was highly effective at picking lithium out from other salts.
Even more importantly, it did so with dramatically lower energy use—87% less compared with conventional extraction. The environmental costs were also slashed by as much as 93%, lowering the expense to just 5.31 euros per unit of lithium recovered.
The dual benefits—recovering a valuable resource and producing clean water—make the approach especially promising for regions rich in salt lakes but struggling with water scarcity.
It also helps tackle two pressing global challenges at once: securing critical materials for green technology and providing access to freshwater.
“This work establishes a scalable and eco-friendly pathway for lithium extraction from abundant saline resources,” explained Yu Tang, professor of chemistry at Lanzhou University and co-corresponding author of the study.
He added that by combining renewable solar power with a zero-liquid-discharge process, the method not only recovers lithium but also advances global decarbonization goals.
The researchers believe this technology has real potential for large-scale use, helping the world meet rising lithium demand without repeating the environmental mistakes of the past. If adopted widely, it could support the growth of clean energy while protecting natural resources—making it a win-win for both industry and the planet.
