Scientists Just Used Some of Earth’s Worst Chemicals to Produce Battery-Grade Lithium

Most research on “forever chemicals” focuses on how best to remove them from the environment. But solutions to tricky problems often emerge from the most unexpected of places—as demonstrated by a new study that instead redirects the pollutants into becoming tools for extracting precious lithium. In a recent Nature Water study, a team led by Rice University researchers describes a novel way to use spent perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, to recover lithium from high-salinity brine pools. The team tapped into the fluorine content inside PFAS leftovers, using it to attract lithium from briny water. Remarkably, the team was able to collect lithium fluoride at 99% purity and confirmed that the sample was pure enough to boost the stability and performance of lithium-ion batteries. “By thinking about waste as a potentially useful compound, we were able to convert the problematic GAC-sorbed [activated carbon from spent PFAS] PFAS into a valuable metal that can be used in batteries, for example,” said Yi Chang, the study’s lead author and a postdoctoral associate at Rice University, in a statement. PFAS is everywhere. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agenc