Rationally designed dipicolinate-functionalized silica for highly efficient recovery of rare-earth elements from e-waste

Olena Artiushenko; Vladimir Zaitsev; Wendy S Rojano; Gabriel A Freitas; Michael Nazarkovsky; Tatiana D Saint'Pierre; Jiang Kai

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124976

Rationally designed dipicolinate-functionalized silica for highly efficient recovery of rare-earth elements from e-waste

J Hazard Mater. 2021 Apr 15:408:124976. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124976. Epub 2020 Dec 28.

Authors

Olena Artiushenko¹, Vladimir Zaitsev², Wendy S Rojano¹, Gabriel A Freitas¹, Michael Nazarkovsky¹, Tatiana D Saint'Pierre¹, Jiang Kai¹

Affiliations

¹ Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Marquês de São Vicente St. 225, Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil.
² Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Marquês de São Vicente St. 225, Rio de Janeiro 22451-900, Brazil; National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, 2 Skovorody vul., Kyiv 04070, Ukraine. Electronic address: vnzaitsev@puc-rio.br.

PMID: 33429146
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.124976

Abstract

Composition of the immobilized layer plays a crucial role in metal adsorption properties of complexing organo-mineral materials. Ignoring the specific features of chemical reactions on solid surface can lead to a significant deterioration in the target properties of the resulted materials. In this research we demonstrated that rationally designed surface-assembling synthesis of organo-silica with covalently immobilized fragments of dipicolinic acid (DPA) resulted in the adsorbent that is capable quantitively recover almost all Rare Earth elements (REEs) from multielement solution with pH > 1.7. In ten consecutive adsorption/desorption cycles no noticeable loss of its efficiency was found, with a mean value of REEs recovery larger than 97%. The adsorbent has been used to recover REEs from model solutions (22 metal ions in 0.5 mol L^-1 NaCl) and real leaching solution of waste of fluorescent lamps. It was demonstrated that even 3200-fold excess of Fe and Cu ions only slightly reduces REEs recovery. The adsorbent is capable to recover above 80% of all (except La) REEs from acidic leaching solution from fluorescent lamps with enrichment factors above 600. After adsorption of Eu³⁺ and Tb³⁺, the resulting materials exhibited strong red and green luminescence, respectively, indicating chelating mechanism of REEs adsorption on SiO₂-DPA.

Keywords: Dipicolinic acid; Dispersive SPE; Fluorescent lamp waste; Rare-earths elements; Surface-assembling synthesis.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't