A race is on to produce lithium in the United States, but competing projects are taking very different approaches to extracting the vital raw material. Some might not be very green.

By binding specific ions in specially designed cages within its pores, a new membrane could enable more efficient flows in energy storage devices (an article featuring LiRRICs Brett Helms and his team at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory).
 
Also read Nature’s article, Diversity-oriented synthesis of polymer membranes with ion solvation cages.