Preparation and evaluation of H2TiO3@attapulgite with high adsorption and selectivity for lithium ions

In this work, the Li2TiO3@attapulgite (LTO@A-C-3) was prepared using attapulgite as a binder and a dispersant, based on the preparation of urea doped Li2TO3(LTO-C-3) by the modified high-temperature solid phase (m-HTSP) method. Urea addition changed the stacking fault concentrations and the attapulgite increased the lattice oxygen content, facilitating the production of isolated surface hydroxyl groups. HTO@A-C-3 exhibited a relatively high equilibrium Li+ adsorption capacity (Qe) of 48.44 mg·g−1. The selective adsorption capacity of HTO@A-C-3 was 46.27 mg·g−1, and the separation factors (αMLi) of Li+ exceeded 100 in Na+, K+, Mg2+ and Ca2+ coexisting salt solutions. The adsorption capacity was maintained at 39.12 mg·g−1, and titanium dissolution loss was less than 2.42% after five cycles.