Porous Organic Polymers with Heterocyclic Crown Ethers for Selective Lithium-Ion Capture

Abstract of the publication: Lithium is a key resource of the 21st century. Despite that, Li is traditionally mined rather than obtained from maritime brines or secondary sources such as spent energy-storage devices owing to the difficulties in Li recovery. Herein, we present a porous organic polymer capable of capturing Li ions from aqueous solutions through highly pre-organized heterocyclic crown ether-like pores in the polymer backbone. These features enable Li+ uptake capacities over 120 mg g-1 and selectivity versus highly competitive ions such as Na+, Ca2+, and Mg2+.