A low-cost anodic catalyst of transition metal oxides for lithium extraction from seawater.

Lithium reserves in seawater are tens of thousands of times higher than on land, making it a promising candidate for lithium resources. A lithium extraction method based on a solar-powered electrolysis technique with a solid-state electrolyte, Li1.5Al0.5Ge1.5(PO4)(3)(LAGP), as the selective membrane has been reported to obtain metallic lithium from seawater. Herein, the electrolytic cell is optimised by replacing the anode catalyst materials. The NiO@SP anode shows excellent electrochemical performance, relatively high energy utilization efficiency and low cost among the anode materials investigated. An electrolytic cell adopting NiO@SP achieves a lithium production efficiency of 57.2 mg W h(-1)with a potential of 4.5 V at a current density of 333 mu A cm(-2). Based on the investigation byin situmass spectroscopy the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) and chlorine evolution reaction (CER) occur together on the anode with the production of oxygen and hypochlorite.