Fish-like nanorobots to help US engineers harvest lithium directly from seawater

Texas A&M researchers are developing fish-like micro- and nanorobots that swim through seawater and target lithium ions.

The project, led by Shiren Wang and Jingjing Qiu, received a $1 million U.S. Department of Energy award.

The robots are designed to be magnetically collected after extraction, but major technical hurdles remain before real-world deployment.

If successful, the approach could provide a cleaner domestic lithium source for EV batteries and energy storage.