Lithium direct monitoring of coastal zones and impact on microorganisms using microfluidics technologies – MICROLIT

In a context of the world energy transition, lithium (Li), massively used in Li-ion batteries, appears a strategic trace metal, displaying the highest annual increase in global demand and with a consumption expected to increase exponentially in the next future. Nevertheless, its impact on the environment and on littoral ecosystems is little known. MICROLIT will develop microfluidic technologies in order to fulfill this gap with the double objective to (1) provide systems usable in the field for continuous lithium monitoring and (2) rapidly detect a negative impact on targeted microorganisms. For this, the MICROLIT consortium groups world-leading academic and private experts in distinct and complementary disciplines: microfluidics and physics, integrated sensors and fluids handling expertise, and chemical oceanography. The project will be divided into 3 work packages, first exploring microorganism behaviors exposed to lithium using a microfluidics platform (WP1), developing microfluidic based sensor for Li level in situ determination (WP2), and finally achieving the prototyping of the two instruments (WP3) on the selected littoral zones. MICROLIT expectations is to perform not only a quantum leap in the field of lithium monitoring, essential to anticipate future contaminations, but also on the fundamental knowledge of its ecotoxicological impact on littoral planktonic species that are at the basis of trophic chains and numerous ecosystems services.