Lithium is a very important metal resource for lithium-ion batteries and nuclear industries. With the fast-growing market demand for lithium, the focus of lithium extraction technologies has shifted to aqueous lithium resources, such as seawater and salt lake brine. Adsorption method has been recognized as one of the most suitable technologies for recovery of lithium from aqueous resources. The present paper reviews the development of the adsorption materials of lithium ion comprehensively, including the inorganic adsorbents (the natural ores, carbon materials, Mn or Ti lithium ion-sieves and their forming techniques) and organic composite adsorbents. The organic ligand functional groups (crown ether, calixarene and phosphate) for lithium ion adsorption, and their bonded matrixs are also summarized. The adsorption mechanism, adsorption capacity and selectivity of dififferent adsorption materials are compared. This paper provides a reference for developing of novel adsorption materials and separation systems to extract lithium ion from aqueous brine resources.

Contents
1 Introduction
2 Inorganic materials for adsorption of lithium
2.1 Natural ores and carbon materials
2.2 Lithium ion sieves
2.3 Lithium ion sieves composite materials
3 Composite materials for adsorption of lithium
3.1 Organo-functional groups of composite materials
3.2 Matrixes of composite materials
3.3 Composite materials with lithium ion imprinting technology
4 Conclusion