Zeolite-Based Adsorbents as Next-Generation Materials for Sustainable Lithium Recovery Technologies

The rapid growth of electric mobility, renewable energy storage, and portable electronics has sharply increased global lithium demand, highlighting the environmental and socio economic drawbacks of conventional extraction methods such as hard rock mining and brine evaporation. These processes are land intensive, slow, water consumptive, and carbon intensive, underscoring the need for next generation materials that enable selective, circular and sustainable lithium recovery. Zeolite based adsorbents have emerged as strong candidates, due to their crystalline frameworks, tunable pore architectures, ion exchange functionality, and exceptional thermal and chemical stability. This review covers recent advances in natural and synthetic zeolites, and zeolite-based composites for lithium capture, with emphasis on guiding design principles governing Li⁺ adsorption capacity and selectivity, transport behavior, and adsorption mechanisms across diverse feedstocks such as brines, geothermal fluids, seawaters, and battery recycling leachates. Lastly, we discuss current challenges and emerging opportunities that will guide future research aimed at advancing zeolite-based adsorbents toward sustainable, next-generation lithium recovery technologies.