Document Type : Original Manuscript

Authors

1 Faculty of Marine and oceanic Sciences, Marine Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

2 Faculty of Marine and Oceanic Sciences, Marine Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

3 Faculty of Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran

Abstract

The mineral resources of the Caspian Sea attract the most attention and this region been one of the most significant geopolitical and economic centers in Eurasia. The utilization of valuable minerals will have a significant effect on the economic development of the region. The sea is a rich source of lithium; its analysis in the Caspian Sea has been evaluated using the flame atomic emission spectroscopy as a simple, fast and reliable method with high accuracy and sensitivity. In this study, water samples were collected from estuaries, surface and depth waters of Babolsar, Mahmoudabad, Freydonkenar in the central southern coast of the Caspian Sea. After sample treatments, the lithium in water samples was measured by standard addition and atomic emission spectrophotometer. The average amount of lithium were determined in estuaries: 15.3±1.1, 14.6±2.2 and 42.3±3.3 µgL-1, in surface waters: 181.7±60.9, 220.0±28.0 and 222.2±10.8 µgL-1, in depth waters 143.7±1.8, 175.8±4.2 and 196.2±5.2 µgL-1 in stations Babolsar, Freydonkenar and Mahmoudabad respectively. The results show that concentration of lithium is reduced with increasing distance from the coastline. The difference between lithium concentration in surface and depth waters have not showed a significant difference in three stations.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Brewer PG. 1975. Minor elements in sea water. Chapter 7. In: Chemical Oceanography, vol. 1 (J. P. Riley and G. Skirrow, Eds). Academic press, London, New York, San Francisco.
Brian WJ. 2016. Lithium Statistics and Information, 703: 648-4908. (U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries).
Choi MS., Shin HS., Kil YW. 2010.  Precise determination of lithium isotopes in seawater using MC-ICP-MS. Microchemical Journal 95(2): 274-278.
Forstner U., Wittmann GTW. 1981. Metal pollution in the aquatic environment. Berlin Heidelberg NewYork. Department of Chemistry. University of  Pretoria, South Africa.
Goldschmidt VM., Bermann H., Hauptmann H., Peters C. 1933. Zur Geochemie der Alkalimtalle. Nachrichten von der Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen, Mathematisch-Physikalische Klasse, 40(35,36): 235-244.
Hajikarimi H. 2013. Geological explorations (Lahijan), Mines Exploration and Economic Geology Magazine, Islamic Azad University, Lahijan Branch.
Jabeen N., Rehman E., Ahmed S. 2003.  Determination of lithium isotopic composition by thermal ionization mass spectrometry in seawater. Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry, 258(2): 427-430.
 Leont'eva GV., Vol'khin VV. 1972. Determination of the lithium content of solutions with high mineral contents by means of ISM-1 cation exchange. Journal of Analytical Chemistry, 28(6):1209-1211.
National Geoscience Database of Iran, Iran Mineral Database, Lithium, Lithium Status Study in the World and Iran, Lithium Production, Lithium Production Rate and Process in the World.
 Rao L. 2011. Recent international R&D activities in the extraction of uranium from seawater. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. California, USA.
Rilly JP. and Tongudai M. 1964. The lithium content of seawater. Deep-Sea Research and Oceanographic Abstracts, 11(4): 563-568.
Soldan AL. and Curtius AJ. 1977. Determination of Lithium in Sea Water by Atomic Absorption and by Flame Emission Spectrophotometry. Mikrochirnica Acta, 1: 167-171.
Taghdri M. and Saffar MR.  2010. Extraction and measurement of very low amounts of lithium in highly concentrated solutions of mineral and natural salts, mineral industry conference,Kerman. https://www.civilica.com/Paper-MININDC01-MININDC01_025.html.
Thomas BD. and Thompson TG. 1933. Lithium in sea water. Science, 77: 547-548.
Tsuyoshi H. 2015. Innovative lithium recovery technique from seawater by using world-first dialysis with a lithium ionic superconductor, Desalination, 359: 59-63.
United States Geological Survey (USGS). Mineral Commodities Summary; accessed on July 21, 2009.
Zawisza B. and Sitko R. 2011. Determination of lithium in mineral water samples by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Applied spectroscopy, 65(10), 1218-1221.