Li1.6Mn1.6O4 is a high-performance manganese-based lithium ion sieve (LIS) with a considerable lithium ion adsorption capacity. Nevertheless, its intrinsic powdery morphology leads to poor fluidity and low permeability of lithium-containing solutions within the material. Consequently, in industrial applications, this powder must undergo processing steps such as granulation and film formation prior to practical use.In this work, granular manganese-based LISs were fabricated via a suspension polymerization granulation method. The raw materials employed included surface-modified Li1.6Mn1.6O4 powder, styrene and divinylbenzene (as the polymer matrix), and toluene (as the porogen). The influence of toluene dosage on the apparent morphology and adsorption performance of the resultant granular LISs was systematically investigated. Granular manganese-based LISs with distinct pore structures were successfully prepared, and their apparent structure and adsorption properties were characterized using relevant analytical techniques. The results indicate that toluene, as a porogen, effectively facilitates the formation of a porous structure in the granular LISs. Moreover, the specific surface area (SSA) of the pores exhibits a positive correlation with the toluene dosage. When the volume of toluene added was 60% of that of styrene, the SSA of the prepared sample reached 261.14 m2·g-1, which was significantly higher than that of the sample prepared without toluene (0.17 m2·g-1). However, excessive toluene addition resulted in the enlargement of pore size within the granules, which compromised the mechanical strength of the manganese-based LIS particles and increased their brittleness. After acidification and phase transformation, the porous granular LIS particles were subjected to lithium ion adsorption experiments. It was found that the maximum adsorption capacity of the porous granular LISs reached 4.76 mg·g-1, representing a 92.13% increase compared to the non-porogen control group. Furthermore, the adsorption process was well-fitted by the Langmuir isothermal adsorption model and the pseudo-second-order kinetic model, suggesting that the Li⁺ adsorption onto the granular LISs followed a monolayer chemical adsorption mechanism. Additionally, the porous granular manganese-based LISs exhibited excellent cyclic stability: after 30 consecutive adsorption-desorption cycles, the retention rate of the adsorption capacity remained as high as 94.37%.
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