Preparation of high hydrophilic H2TiO3 ion sieve for lithium recovery from liquid lithium resources

• Nanoscale lithium ion sieve was synthesized by template method. • H 2 TiO 3 -4 was well uniform distribution with a highly open pore structure. • H 2 TiO 3 -4 showed great hydrophilicity with the contact angle of 18.2°. • The lithium adsorption capacity of H 2 TiO 3 -4 was superior as high as 56.03 mg/g. • The adsorption capacity remained at 96.2% of the first adsorption after five cycles. Extraction of lithium from liquid lithium resources has become a popular research field, among which H 2 TiO 3 material has great application potential. In this work, we further explored the correlation that the hydrophilicity of H 2 TiO 3 with its adsorption performance based on the existing work. The double surfactants method was used to regulate the morphology and hydrophilic functional groups of the surface to regulate the material hydrophilia and prepare nano-sized lithium ion sieve. The effect of surfactant and preparation method on the hydrophilicity and adsorption properties of the materials were investigated. The results show that the synthesized lithium ion sieve H 2 TiO 3 -4 (HTO-4) has excellent hydrophilicity and adsorption performance reflected with the maximum adsorption capacity of 56.03 mg·g -1 . Meanwhile, the adsorption capacity loss of the material is only 3.8% after five cycles, which shows a satisfactory cyclic stability.