Sustainable lithium extraction enabled by responsive metal-organic frameworks with ion-sieving adsorption effects

selectivity of 5.8 to 29 in synthetic brines with Mg/Li ratio of 1 to 0.1. It could be quickly regenerated by sunlight irradiation in 6 min with excellent cycling performance of 99% after five cycles. This work sheds light on designing selective adsorbents using responsive subnanoporous materials for environmentally friendly and energy-efficient ion separation and purification.