Abstract
Granular manganese oxide adsorbents with different particle sizes were prepared by the acidtreatment of the granulated precursors which were obtained by the hardening-coating-in-liquid method using poly-vinyl-chloride as a binder. Physical and mechanical properties, column adsorption conditions, and lithium adsorptivity from sea water were investigated for the granular samples.
The mechanical strength (above 99%) against shaking, wet-bulk density (about 1g·cm-3), and water content (about 0.6g·cm-3) of the samples were almost constant independent of the particle size, while the height of fluidized bed in the column flow was greatly influenced by the particle size.
Column adsorptivity of lithium from sea water was dependent on the particle size. Lithium uptake after 17-day adsorption was well correlated with the external surface area of the granule.
The rate of lithium adsorption was constant at the space velocities above 300h-1 for the adsorbent 0.5-0.7mm in size. The lithium uptake reached 5.5mg·g-1for the adsorbent of 0.25-0.5mm in size by the 25-day adsorption in sea water.
