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Abstract Extracting lithium resources from seawater and brine can promote the development of the new energy materials industry. The electrochemical method is green and efficient. Iron phosphate (FePO 4 ) crystal, with its 1D ion channel, holds significant potential as a primary lithium extraction electrode material. Li + encounters a substantial concentration disadvantage in brines, and the co‐intercalation of Na + diminishes Li + selectivity. To address this issue, this work enhances the energy barrier for Na + insertion through prelithiation strategies applied to the 1D channels of FePO 4 crystal, thereby improving Li + selectivity, and further investigating the prelithiation effect with particle size and morphology control. The results indicate that the Li (4C‐40%) FePO 4 // Activated carbon(AC) system enhances selectivity of lithium. The Li (4C‐40%) FePO 4 with size diameter of 2500 nm demonstrates an energy consumption of 0.79 Wh mol −1 and a purity of 97.94% for lithium extraction at a unit lithium extraction of 5.93 mmol g −1 in simulated brine. Li (4C‐40%) FePO 4 ‐nanoplates demonstrate the most optimal lithium extraction performance among the three morphologies due to their lamellar structure's short ion diffusion path in the 010 channel, favoring Li + diffusion. The diffusion energy barriers of Li + and Na + are calculated using Density Functional Theory (DFT) before and after prelithiation, showing good agreement with experimental results.
Zhao et al. (Tue,) studied this question.