Synthesis of Lithium Ion Sieve Nanoparticles and Optimizing Uptake Capacity by Taguchi Method

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Spinel-type of MnO2 nanoparticles which successfully synthesized by a hydrothermal process, have a required capacity for lithium uptake from liquid resources. Themost lithium adsorption capacity of 6.6 mmol/g of up to now was found to be an important limiting parameter for industrial applications. Therefore, increasing uptake capacity of these ion sieves by studding the effect of six effective parameters, involving lithium compounds, manganese compounds, oxidizing reagents, calcination temperatures, heating times and Li/Mn mol ratios was investigated. To this end, Taguchi L9(34) orthogonal array was employedas a predominate method to evaluate these parameters and the results optimized by using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and analysis of mean (ANOM) in two separate stages. Although, all mentioned parameters had significant effect on lithium uptake capacity, but oxidizing reagents were the most effective factors. Hence, a new ion sieve with lithium adsorption capacity more than 9 mmol/g was synthesized for the first time, by applying this method.