Simple and Rapid Preparation of MIL-121 with Small Particles for Lithium Adsorption from Brine

MULA, an affordable framework for multifunctional liquid automation in natural- and life sciences with a focus on hardware design, setup, modularity and validation

The implementation of automation has already had a considerable impact on chemical and pharmaceutical industrial laboratories. However, academic laboratories have often been more reluctant to adopt such technology due to the high cost of commercial liquid handling systems, although, in many instances, there would be a huge potential to automate repetitive tasks, resulting in elevated productivity. We present here a detailed description of the setup, validation, and utilization of a multifunctional liquid automation (MULA) system that can be used to automate various chemical and biological tasks. Considering that such a setup must be highly customizable, we also designed MULA with respect to modularity, providing detailed insight as far as possible. Including all 3D-printed parts and the used Hamilton gastight micro syringe, the total construction cost is approximately 700 €. This allows us to achieve a highly reliable and accurate system that exceeds the precision of a classical air displacement pipette while still retaining the ability to use closed vial (septa) setups. To encourage other groups to adopt this setup, detailed instructions and tips for every step of the process are provided, along with the complete CAD design of MULA and control code, which are freely available for download under the CC BY NC 3.0 license.

Explosion wave and crack field of an eccentric decoupled charge

To investigate the characteristics of the explosion damage from an eccentric decoupled charge, the rock-breaking mechanism of an eccentric decoupled charge is revealed from the perspectives of the explosion wave field and crack field through theoretical and experimental analyses. The ratio of the maximum to minimum pressure on an eccentric decoupled hole wall increases exponentially with an increase in the decoupling coefficient, but it does not change with a change in the explosive density or explosive detonation velocity. The explosive energy on the eccentric charge side has a certain accumulation effect, the velocity of the reflected shock wave at the blasthole wall is greater than that of the incident shock wave, and the incident velocity of the explosion wave on the eccentric side is greater than that on the non-eccentric side. The expansion range of the explosion gas is significantly better than that on the non-eccentric side, indicating that the eccentric decoupled charge can strengthen the action of the explosion gas product on the eccentric side. In addition, the overpressure of the explosion wave on the eccentric side is greater than that on the non-eccentric side. The fractal dimension and damage degree of the explosion crack on the eccentric side are larger than those on the non-eccentric side. The explosion cracks can be divided into intensive, transition, and sparse areas, and the fractal dimension and damage degree decrease successively in the three areas. The explosion cracks formed on the non-eccentric side outside the range of three times the blasthole diameter concentrate in the sparse area, and the destructive effect of the explosion on the non-eccentric side medium is effectively reduced.

Novel Fluorine-Pillared Metal-Organic Framework for Highly Effective Lithium Enrichment from Brine

The continuously developing lithium battery market makes seeking a reliable lithium supply a top priority for technology companies. Although metal-organic frameworks have been extensively researched as adsorbents owing to their exceptional properties, lithium adsorption has been scarcely investigated. Herein, we prepared a novel cuboid rod-shaped three-dimensional framework termed TJU-21 composed of fluorine-pillared coordination layers of Fe-O inorganic chains and benzene-1,3,5-tricarboxylate (BTC) linkages. Besides thermal and chemical robustness, a remarkably high lithium uptake of about 41 mg·g^-1 was observed on TJU-21 as a fast-spontaneous endothermic process. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction demonstrated that the adsorbed lithium was located in the cavity symmetrically assembled by iron sites and organic ligands between adjacent layers, while another kind of cavity in the framework circled by Fe-O-Fe-O-Fe-O-Fe chains and shared BTC linkages was occupied by hydrogen-bonded water molecules. Lithium adsorption resulted in decreased curviness of the coordination layers, and the binding energy change at O 1s as well as the increased Fe 2p peak, suggested potential interaction with iron sites. The practicability of TJU-21 as a lithium adsorbent was further proved by the considerable capacity and selectivity in simulated salt brines with excellent reusability.