A molecular extraction process for vanadium based on tandem selective complexation and precipitation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 38521785.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-024-46958-6 and PMC identifier 10960790.
- 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
Recycling vanadium from alternative sources is essential due to its expanding demand, depletion in natural sources, and environmental issues with terrestrial mining. Here, we present a complexation-precipitation method to selectively recover pentavalent vanadium ions, V(V), from complex metal ion mixtures, using an acid-stable metal binding agent, the cyclic imidedioxime, naphthalimidedioxime (H<sub>2</sub>CID<sup>III</sup>). H<sub>2</sub>CID<sup>III</sup> showed high extraction capacity and fast binding towards V(V) with crystal structures showing a 1:1 M:L dimer, [V<sub>2</sub>(O)<sub>3</sub>(C<sub>12</sub>H<sub>6</sub>N<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub>]<sup>2-</sup>, 1, and 1:2 M:L non-oxido, [V(C<sub>12</sub>H<sub>6</sub>N<sub>3</sub>O<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub>] <sup>̶</sup> complex, 2. Complexation selectivity studies showed only 1 and 2 were anionic, allowing facile separation of the V(V) complexes by pH-controlled precipitation, removing the need for solid support. The tandem complexation-precipitation technique achieved high recovery selectivity for V(V) with a selectivity coefficient above 3 × 10<sup>5</sup> from synthetic mixed metal solutions and real oil sand tailings. Zebrafish toxicity assay confirmed the non-toxicity of 1 and 2, highlighting H<sub>2</sub>CID<sup>III</sup>'s potential for practical and large-scale V(V) recovery.