A Comprehensive Review of Selected Major Categories of Lithium Isotope Separation Techniques

摘要

The ability to generate materials with an enriched isotopic abundance, that is onethat differs from natural abundance, is critical in terms of technology. Isotopesare used in a wide range of applications, including radioactive tracers,nondestructive tests, radiotherapy in human medicine, nuclear fuels, andisotope-substituted compounds for chemistry and biology research, as well asenvironmental geochemical signature tracers. A commonly discussed researchtopic is the isotopic separation of various elements-uranium, hydrogen, lithium,and iodine, among many others. Among these isotopes, lithium isotopes areespecially important in various applications including strategic areas. Theseisotopes are light and hence their separation techniques are not very obvious.Herein, all the main categories of Li isotope separation are reviewed in depth witha focus on electrochemical technologies for stable lithium isotope separation.