Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Apr 27;13(5):467.
doi: 10.3390/membranes13050467.

Tentative Approaches for Extraction of Lanthanides from Wastewater with Low Metal Concentration

José M Carretas  1   2 , Luís M Ferreira  2   3 , Pedro M P Santos  3 , Susana S Gomes  3 , Maria Fátima Araújo  2   3 , Leonor Maria  1 , João Paulo Leal  1   2
Affiliations

Tentative Approaches for Extraction of Lanthanides from Wastewater with Low Metal Concentration

José M Carretas et al. Membranes (Basel). .

Abstract

Lanthanides are critical elements, and their recovery from wastewater increases the availability of these elements and reduces their impacts on the environment. In this study, tentative approaches to extract lanthanides from low-concentration aqueous solutions were investigated. PVDF membranes soaked with different active compounds or synthesized chitosan-based membranes containing these active compounds were used. The membranes were immersed in 10-4 M of aqueous solutions of selected lanthanides, and their extraction efficiency was assessed using ICP-MS. The PVDF membranes showed quite poor results, with only the membrane with oxamate ionic liquid giving some positive results (0.75 mg of Yb, 3 mg of lanthanides per gram of membrane). However, the chitosan-based membranes led to very interesting results, with the maximum concentration factor for the final solution relative to the initial solution being 13 times higher for Yb, which was obtained with the chitosan-sucrose-citric acid membrane. Several of the chitosan membranes, namely the one with 1-Butyl-3-methylimidazolium-di-(2-ethylhexyl)-oxamate, could extract around 10 mg of lanthanides per gram of membrane, with the better one being the membrane with sucrose/citric acid that achieved more than 18 mg/g of membrane. The use of chitosan for this purpose is a novelty. Since these membranes are easily prepared and have a very low cost, practical applications can be envisaged after further studies to better understand the underlying mechanism.

Keywords: circular economy; lanthanides; metal removal; wastewater.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A schematic of chitosan structure.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Stability of the compounds or mixtures of compounds in the PVDF membranes after 24 h in water with agitation. A value of 100% means that all the active compounds are lost to the solution, and 0% means that all of them remains in the membrane.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Extraction of each metal under study using the PVDF membranes with ionic liquids and tributyl phosphate compounds.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Extraction of each metal under study using the PVDF membranes with mixtures of ionic liquids and tributyl phosphate.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Extraction of each metal under study using the PVDF membranes with sucrose/carboxylic acid compounds.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Extraction of each metal under study using the chitosan-based membranes with several active compounds irradiated at 5 kGy with a dose rate (DR) of 0.5 kGy h−1.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Extraction of each metal under study using the chitosan-based membranes with several active compounds irradiated at 10 kGy (DR = 0.5 kGy.h−1).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Fujita Y., McCall S.K., Ginosar D. Recycling rare earths: Perspectives and recent advances. MRS Bull. 2022;47:283–288. doi: 10.1557/s43577-022-00301-w. - DOI
    1. Critical Raw Materials. [(accessed on 23 February 2023)]. Available online: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/sectors/raw-materials/areas-s....
    1. European Raw Materials Alliance. [(accessed on 23 February 2023)]. Available online: https://single-market-economy.ec.europa.eu/industry/strategy/industrial-....
    1. Hemmerle L., Ochsner A.M., Vonderach T., Hattendorf B., Vorholt J.A. Chapter 9—Mass spectrometry-based approaches to study lanthanides and lanthanide-dependent proteins in the phyllosphere. In: Cotruvo J.A. Jr., editor. Rare-Earth Element Biochemistry: Methanol Dehydrogenases and Lanthanide Biology. Vol. 650. Academic Press; New York, NY, USA: 2012. pp. 215–236. (Methods in Enzymology). - PubMed
    1. Cui M. Key Concepts and Terminology. In: Liu L., Ramakrishna S., editors. An Introduction to Circular Economy. Springer; New York, NY, USA: 2021. pp. 17–34.

LinkOut - more resources