A crystalline organic hybrid indium antimony sulfide for high performance lithium/sodium storage

Biotreatment of acidic rare earth mining wastewater via acidophilic living organisms is a promising approach owing to their high tolerance to high concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs); however, simultaneous removal of both REEs and ammonium is generally hindered since most acidophilic organisms are positively charged. Accordingly, immobilization of acidophilic Galdieria sulphuraria (G. sulphuraria) by calcium alginate to improve its affinity to positively charged REEs has been used for simultaneous bioremoval of REEs and ammonium. The results indicate that 97.19%, 96.19%, and 98.87% of La, Y, and Sm, respectively, are removed by G. sulphuraria beads (GS-BDs). The adsorption of REEs by calcium alginate beads (BDs) and GS-BDs is well fitted by both pseudo first-order (PFO) and pseudo second-order (PSO) kinetic models, implying that adsorption of REEs involves both physical adsorption caused by affinity of functional groups such as -COO- and -OH and chemical adsorption based on ion exchange of Ca2+ with REEs. Notably, GS-BDs exhibit high tolerance to La, Y, and Sm with maximum removal efficiencies of 97.9%, 96.6%, and 99.1%, respectively. Furthermore, the ammonium removal efficiency of GS-BDs is higher than that of free G. sulphuraria cells at an initial ammonium concentration of 100 mg L-1, while the efficiency decreases when initial concentration of ammonium is higher than 150 mg L-1. Last, small size of GS-BDs favors ammonium removal because of their lower mass transfer resistance. This study achieves simultaneous removal of REEs and ammonium from acidic mining drainage, providing a potential strategy for biotreatment of REE tailing wastewater. 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2022.100204

Recovering rare earth elements via immobilized red algae from ammonium-rich wastewater

Cu-MOF@PVP/PVDF hybrid composites as tunable proton-conducting materials

A facile strategy for engineering heterostructures of Pd nanoparticle-loaded metal-organic framework nanosheets as active hydrogenation catalysts

Solvothermal syntheses, characterizations and photocatalytic properties of two copper-rich thiostannates

Rare-earth elements (REEs) in industrial wastewaters have great value for recycling and reuse, but their characteristic of low concentration poses a challenge to an efficient enrichment from wastewaters. In recent years, thiometallates featuring two-dimensional layers have shown great potential in the enrichment of REEs via the ion-exchange process. However, investigations on thiometallates featuring three-dimensional anionic frameworks for the recovery of REEs have not been reported. Herein, K2Sn2S5 (KTS-2), a thiostannate possessing a three-dimensional porous framework, was chosen as an ion-exchange material for capturing REEs from an aqueous solution. Indeed, KTS-2 exhibited excellent ion-exchange performance for all 16 REEs (except Pm). Specifically, KTS-2 displayed a high capture capacity (232.7 ± 7.8 mg/g) and a short equilibrium time (within 10 min) for Yb3+ ions. In addition, KTS-2 had a high distribution coefficient for Yb3+ ions (Kd > 105 mL/g) in the presence of excessive interfering ions. Impressively, KTS-2 could reach removal rates of above 95% for all 16 REEs in a large quantity of wastewater with low initial concentration (∼7 mg/L). Moreover, KTS-2 could be used as an eco-friendly material for ion exchange of REEs, since the released K+ cations would not cause secondary pollution to the water solution.

Ji-Ming Yu

Papers

Effective Enrichment of Low-Concentration Rare-Earth Ions by Three-Dimensional Thiostannate K2Sn2S5.