Recovery of rare earth elements (Lu, Y) by adsorption using functionalized SBA-15 and MIL-101 (Cr).

Seongchul Ryu, Charith Fonseka, Gayathri Naidu, Paripurnanda Loganathan, Hee Moon, Jaya Kandasamy, Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran

Chemosphere 2021 Oct

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Due to increasing application in the green energy sector, rare earth elements (REEs) have become a precious commodity in the international market. The REEs, Yttrium (Y) and Lutetium (Lu) are used as catalysts in wide array of industries. SBA-15 modified with 1,4-phthaloyl diamido-propyltriethoxysilane (1,4-PA-APTES) ligands; and chromium based metal organic frameworks (MOF) modified with PMIDA (MIL-101-PMIDA) were prepared in this study as potential adsorbents for recovery of these elements. The adsorption capacities for Lu and Y on virgin SBA-15 were negligible. After modification of SBA-15, the Langmuir adsorption capacities for Lu and Y significantly increased to 17.0 and 17.9 mg/L, respectively. The Langmuir adsorption capacities of Lu and Y on PMIDA modified MIL-101 (MIL-101-PMIDA) were 63.4 and 25.3 mg/g, respectively. Higher adsorption capacities of the MOF are due to its higher surface area (1050 m2/g) and beneficial functional groups such as phosphonic group present on the adsorbent surface and it attributes to rapider REE adsorption on MIL-101-PMIDA than on1,4-PA-SBA. Lu adsorption capacity was 2.5 times higher than Y due to its superior ion-exchange capability with grafted phosphonic groups. Both adsorbents retained over 90% of adsorption capacity after 5 adsorption/desorption cycles which demonstrate the high structural stability of the materials. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Seongchul Ryu, Charith Fonseka, Gayathri Naidu, Paripurnanda Loganathan, Hee Moon, Jaya Kandasamy, Saravanamuthu Vigneswaran. Recovery of rare earth elements (Lu, Y) by adsorption using functionalized SBA-15 and MIL-101 (Cr). Chemosphere. 2021 Oct;281:130869