Lithium isotope separation by electromigration

Abstract Lithium-6 and lithium-7 with high abundance can be used in fusion (6Li> 30%) and fission (7Li >99.9%) respectively. Lithium isotope separation with nature abundance always inspires people's interest. In this work, lithium isotope separation by electromigration from lithium-loaded organic phase to aqueous solution was investigated. It was found that immigrant lithium ions in aqueous solution enriched lithium-7 at 1.5 V and enriched lithium-6 at 20 V. After electromigration, the lithium isotope value in aqueous solutions could reach -21.5. The results confirmed the isotopic separation effect of lithium ions electromigration which attributed to dissociating difference of lithium isotopic ions-crown ethers complex.