Tailoring hydrophobic deep eutectic solvent for selective lithium recovery from dilute aqueous solutions

•A green system can efficiently extract Li+ in extremely dilute aqueous solutions.•A deep eutectic solvent and organic phosphoric acid system was proposed.•The effect of operating conditions on the efficiency of Li+ extraction was studied.•It can selectively extract Li+ from mixed ion solutions with high Na+ content.•The extraction system can realize stable recycling.