Adsorption of Lithium on Cell Surface as Nanoparticles through Lithium Binding Peptide Display in Recombinant Escherichia coli

Abstract

Lithium is one of the highly used elements in various industries such as ceramics, polymer and battery. Considering the enormous demand of lithium based battery, the importance of lithium is getting higher in these days. To recover lithium in environmentally friendly manner, lithium binding peptide displaying recombinant Escherchia coli was constructed. The display of peptide was conceived by employing OmpC as an anchoring motif. The ability of the peptide to bind lithium was evaluated in three different media, and the selectivity of the peptide towards lithium was estimated. The physio-chemical and optical parameter of the adsorbed lithium nanoparticles was evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), UV, and Raman spectroscopy.