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Inorganic solid-state electrolyte membranes for lithium extraction

With the shift towards renewable energy, demand for lithium is surging — underscoring the need for more efficient and sustainable ways to harvest it. Inorganic solid-state electrolytes, most known for their role in all-solid-state batteries, offer largely untapped potential as ion separation membrane materials for direct lithium extraction.

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Fig. 1: Ion transport mechanisms and development of ISSE membranes.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (22250410273, 22478177, 21921006 and 22325804) and the Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Project (BE2023058). H.W. is the recipient of an Australian Research Council Australian Laureate Fellowship funded by the Australian Government (project no. FL200100049). Z.-X.L. acknowledges the funding for the Distinguished Professorship Program of Jiangsu Province.

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Correspondence to Ze-Xian Low  (刘泽贤), Zhaoxiang Zhong  (仲兆祥), Weihong Xing  (邢卫红) or Huanting Wang  (王焕庭).

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Low, ZX., Zhang, Q., Wang, Q. et al. Inorganic solid-state electrolyte membranes for lithium extraction. Nat Rev Mater 10, 397–399 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41578-025-00808-z

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