Preparation of tungsten-doped Ti-based lithium ion sieves with excellent adsorption performance by hydrothermal method

Ti-based Li-ion sieve (H 2 TiO 3 , HTO), is attractive for adsorbing lithium from salt lakes. Nevertheless, the titanium dissolution and limited adsorption capacity affect the cycling stability and adsorption performance. In this work, an atom engineering technique was employed by doping tungsten (W) into layered HTO via a hydrothermal method. Through experiments and theoretical simulation, it was demonstrated that the doped W in HTO results in expanded interplanar spacing, increased surface adsorption energy, and excellent adsorption performance. The optimized HTO-W exhibits an Ti dissolution rate of 0.73 % (in 2 mol L −1 HCl for 12 h, 5.6 % that of pristine HTO) and adsorption capacity of 43.01 mg g −1 (in 425 mg L −1 LiCl solution at 30 °C, 1.4 times that of undoped HTO). Furthermore, the HTO-W reaches adsorption equilibrium in about 3 h with exceptional selectivity and stability. This work demonstrates an effective enhancement of lithium adsorption by W doping, providing new avenues for developing lithium adsorbents with high performance.