Solid–liquid extraction of lithium chloride with a simple and flexible heteroditopic receptor

Abstract The global demand for lithium has surged in recent years due to its wide applications in industry and medicine. We have achieved selective solid–liquid extraction of LiCl using a heteroditopic receptor with an ether linker as a cation recognition site and 2 urea functionalities as cooperative anion recognition sites. The receptor exhibits high selectivity for LiCl from 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra by complexation in CD3CN and CDCl3. The solid–liquid extraction, followed by stripping to neutral aqueous phase using with the receptor, revealed recovery of LiCl about 90% by ion chromatography and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses, with a slight competition with MgCl2. LiCl was also recovered from the artificially prepared salt mixture and natural one from the Salar de Uyuni by the solid–liquid extraction with less competitive recovery of MgCl2.