Rationally designed mineralization for selective recovery of the rare earth elements.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 28548098.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms15670 and PMC identifier 5458567.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The increasing demand for rare earth (RE) elements in advanced materials for permanent magnets, rechargeable batteries, catalysts and lamp phosphors necessitates environmentally friendly approaches for their recovery and separation. Here, we propose a mineralization concept for direct extraction of RE ions with Lamp (lanthanide ion mineralization peptide). In aqueous solution containing various metal ions, Lamp promotes the generation of RE hydroxide species with which it binds to form hydrophobic complexes that accumulate spontaneously as insoluble precipitates, even under physiological conditions (pH ∼6.0). This concept for stabilization of an insoluble lanthanide hydroxide complex with an artificial peptide also works in combination with stable scaffolds like synthetic macromolecules and proteins. Our strategy opens the possibility for selective separation of target metal elements from seawater and industrial wastewater under mild conditions without additional energy input.