Overview

My PhD project will seek to deliver a new technology for the selective recovery of lithium from the aqueous phase. In particular, the research will focus on developing a mechanistic understanding of how we can develop new approaches in the functionalisation of manganese oxides to enable lithium recovery whilst excluding non-target metals.  

• The problem:

Our mitigation of the concurrent Climate Emergency is critically dependent upon a massive upscaling in the procurement of battery technology metals, in order to achieve our ambitious plans to electrify vast sectors of industry and society. Within this lithium is widely regarded as a vitally important metal and whilst the geosphere does possess a vast mass of lithium, its procurement does still present major challenges associated with limiting the resultant environmental disturbance and carbon footprint of such activity.  

• The solution:

There are currently immense quantities of lithium worldwide within aqueous resources, including geothermal water, mine water and sea water. The development of new technologies to selectively extract lithium from such matrices could therefore represent a major step forward in diversifying lithium supply chains and also potentially using dramatically lower energy input and with lower environmental disturbance than conventional approaches.  

• The specific aims of project are to:

1. Collect and characterise lithium bearing waters from a variety of sources.
2. Determine how we can synthesise, and optimise the application of, next generation functionalised manganese oxides which are selective for lithium removal from complex aqueous matrices.
3. Determine what hydrogeochemical conditions are best suited to control and optimise such lithium extraction processes.

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Publications

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| 2018 | 2017 |

2018

• Boroumand Z, Asadi R, Ghobadi MISAGH, Abdollahi H. (2018) CoxMn1-xFe2O4-Graphene Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles for Removal of Zn2+ from Industrial Wastewater, The Second National Conference on Nanobiomining, Tehran, Iran.
• Boroumand Z, Ghobadi M, Shafiee Kisomi A. (2018) Synthesis and Characterization of nZVI for Adsorption of Eu3+ from Aqueous Solution, The Second National Conference on Nanobiomining, Tehran, Iran.
• Ghobadi M, Boroumand Z, Gharabaghi M, Abdollahi H. (2018) Synthesis and Characterization of Spinel Magnetic Nanoparticles CoxMn1-xFe2O4, The 36th National and the 3rd International Geosciences Congress, Tehran, Iran, Tehran, Iran.
• Ghobadi M, Gharabaghi M, Abdollahi H, Boroumand Z, Moradian M. (2018) MnFe2O4-graphene oxide magnetic nanoparticles as a high-performance adsorbent for rare earth elements: Synthesis, isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamics and desorption, Journal of Hazardous Materials, volume 351, pages 308-316, DOI:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2018.03.011. [PDF]

2017

• Ghobadi MISAGH, Boroumand Z, Gharabaghi M, Abdollahi H. (2017) Synthesis and Characterization of Spinel Magnetic Nanoparticles MnFe2O4 Modified by Different Methods, The First National Conference of Nano from Synthesis to Industry, Tehran, Iran.
• Ghobadi MISAGH, Boroumand Z, Gharabaghi M, Abdollahi H. (2017) CoxMn1-xFe2O4 Spinel Magnetic Nanoparticles for Removal of Cd2+ from Aqueous Solution, The First National Conference of Nano from Synthesis to Industry, Tehran, Iran.
• Ghobadi M, Gharabaghi M, Abdollahi H, Shafiee Kisomi A. (2017) A simple and low-cost route to recycle rare earth elements (La, Ce) from aqueous solution using magnetic nanoparticles of CoxMn1−xFe2O4 (x = 0.2 and 0.8): synthesis, isotherms, kinetics, thermodynamics and desorption, New Journal of Chemistry, volume 41, no. 20, pages 11906-11914, DOI:10.1039/c7nj02125a.

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