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Review
. 2024 Feb 1;29(3):688.
doi: 10.3390/molecules29030688.

Rare Earths-The Answer to Everything

Thomas Behrsing  1 , Victoria L Blair  1 , Florian Jaroschik  2 , Glen B Deacon  1 , Peter C Junk  3
Affiliations
Review

Rare Earths-The Answer to Everything

Thomas Behrsing et al. Molecules. .

Abstract

Rare earths, scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanoids from lanthanum to lutetium, are classified as critical metals because of their ubiquity in daily life. They are present in magnets in cars, especially electric cars; green electricity generating systems and computers; in steel manufacturing; in glass and light emission materials especially for safety lighting and lasers; in exhaust emission catalysts and supports; catalysts in artificial rubber production; in agriculture and animal husbandry; in health and especially cancer diagnosis and treatment; and in a variety of materials and electronic products essential to modern living. They have the potential to replace toxic chromates for corrosion inhibition, in magnetic refrigeration, a variety of new materials, and their role in agriculture may expand. This review examines their role in sustainability, the environment, recycling, corrosion inhibition, crop production, animal feedstocks, catalysis, health, and materials, as well as considering future uses.

Keywords: agriculture; catalysis; corrosion inhibitors; environment; health; materials; rare earths; recycling; sustainability.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Rare earth elements ordered in decreasing trivalent ion size from lanthanum to scandium.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Selection of energy and transportation uses of rare earth metals.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Australian rare earth element deposits and operating mines, 2021. For clarity, only major or significant deposits are labelled. Deposit size is based on total resources. Reproduced with permission from Geoscience Australia [7].
Figure 4
Figure 4
Apple’sTM pledge to use 100% recyclable rare earth elements in all its products by 2025. Figure adapted from Apple Newsroom article [11,12].
Figure 5
Figure 5
Machine learning approach to advance rare earth element separation [16].
Figure 6
Figure 6
Lanmodulin protein structure (from Trenzyme GmBH) with its selective rare earth element (REE) binding sites highlighted.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Organophosphorus/phosphate ester-based solvents for extraction and recovery of Nd-Fe-B alloys.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Ionic liquid extraction of Y and Eu from lamp phosphor waste.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Pitting corrosion, photo of a section of an X65 steel pipe from an oil field in Western Australia.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Overview of the animal feedstock and crop rare earth applications. green tick signifies RE enhancement application, red cross signifies RE has no effect overall.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Polyisoprene structures from neodymium-based catalysts.
Scheme 1
Scheme 1
Synthesis of self-healing elastomers using a Sc half sandwich complex.
Scheme 2
Scheme 2
General reactivity pathways characteristic of organolanthanoid complexes.
Scheme 3
Scheme 3
Recent examples of hydroelementation reactions.
Scheme 4
Scheme 4
Example of depolymerisation using rare earth metals.
Scheme 5
Scheme 5
A chiral Sc(OTf)3 complex in flow chemistry.
Scheme 6
Scheme 6
Dechlorination of PVC under photocatalytic conditions and a CeCp3 catalyst.
Scheme 7
Scheme 7
Mo-catalysed ammonia production using SmI2 as a stoichiometric reductant.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Commercially available medical imaging agents.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Chem draw representation of drug-resistant cancer complex KP772.
Scheme 8
Scheme 8
Ultralong phosphorescence in an organolanthanoid complex.
Scheme 9
Scheme 9
Different Ln-F NPs.
Figure 14
Figure 14
High-performance Dy-based SMMs [211].
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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