Lithium Metal Extraction from Seawater Sixie Yang, Fan Zhang, Huaiping Ding, Ping He, Haoshen Zhou  Joule  Volume 2, Issue 9, Pages 1648-1651 (September 2018) DOI: 10.1016/j.joule.2018.07.006 Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 1 Shortage of Future Lithium Supply and the Uneven Distribution of Current Lithium Resources (A) Annual lithium consumption in 2015–2050 and total lithium consumption from 2015 to the year 2020/2025/2030/2040/2050. The lithium consumption forecast from 2020 to 2050 is obtained under the assumption that only the demand from electric vehicles will increase and the demand from other uses will remain constant in the future. The growth of electric vehicles is accorded to the IEA's blue map scenario and the lithium demand estimated based on a previous report (1.4 kg per plug-in hybrid vehicle and 4 kg per electric vehicle).4 (B) Schematic diagram of the lithium reserve in the ocean and on land and the top four lithium reserve countries in the world with their proportion in the world's total lithium reserves. Joule 2018 2, 1648-1651DOI: (10.1016/j.joule.2018.07.006) Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 2 Schematic Diagram of the Solar-Powered Lithium Extraction Device (A) Mechanism of the lithium extraction device. (B) Single unit. (C) Scale-up device array on the sea. Joule 2018 2, 1648-1651DOI: (10.1016/j.joule.2018.07.006) Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions

Figure 3 Analysis of the Lithium Extraction Process under Different Current Density and the Characterization of the Deposit on Copper Foil (A) Potential-time profile of the electrolysis process under the current density of 80, 160, 240, and 320 μA cm−2 (inset: photographic image of the cathode copper foil after electrolysis for 1 hr at 80 μA cm−2). (B) Lithium production per cm2 of the copper foil. (C and D) XPS of the (C) Li 1s orbital and (D) Na 1s orbital before and after Ar-ion etching. (E) Characterization of the deposit on copper foil. XRD of the copper foil after lithium deposition. The peaks corresponding to Al were generated by the aluminum sample holder, which was employed to protect the lithium from ambient air. Joule 2018 2, 1648-1651DOI: (10.1016/j.joule.2018.07.006) Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. Terms and Conditions