Attempt to efficiently extract metal "lithium" indispensable for lithium ion battery from rock, not salt water

American researchers have succeeded in identifying volcanic rocks containing high concentrations of alkali metal "lithium" necessary for lithium ion batteries indispensable for smartphones and electric vehicles. Hopes for eliminating uneasiness due to unevenly distributed lithium will increase.

Will Supervolcanoes Help Power Our Future? | Innovation | Smithsonian
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/will-supervolcanoes-help-power-our-future-180964635/?no-ist

Lithium-ion batteries with high energy density are expected to continue to grow in the future, as alternate batteries are not going to develop slowly. However, 75% of Chile and Australia can currently extract lithium, and the remainder are narrowed down to Argentina and China, so the production of lithium is biased worldwide, It is pointed out that there is.

Many of lithium is extracted from salt water such as salt lake, but this lithium has melted into salt water by volcanic activity. Lithium is known to be contained in volcanic rocks for a long time and it is known that high-PegmatiteAnd minerals contained in soft clay-like volcanic rockHectoriteWe also know that lithium is also contained in large amounts. Therefore, if you can efficiently find volcanic rocks containing a lot of lithium, there is a possibility that lithium can be produced in volcanic areas around the world.


Dr. Liang Munk of the University of Alaska can detect it relatively easilyrubidiumYazirconiumIt is found that there is a correlation between the concentration of lithium and the concentration of lithium contained in the rock. By using this relationship, it seems that it was possible to identify high-concentration rock from volcanic zone of King's Valley in Nevada state, Mexico / Sonora state, Mediterranean volcanic island Panteleria.


However, at the moment it has not been developed a commercially usable process for extracting lithium from hectorite, so we have to wait for future technology development to actually produce lithium from volcanic rock. Nonetheless, if we can extract lithium inexpensively from volcanic rocks, it is expected that we can resolve the supply instability caused by the uneven distribution of lithium production sites like present.