Xuemiao Yin, Yaxing Wang, Xiaojing Bai, Yumin Wang, Lanhua Chen, Chengliang Xiao, Juan Diwu, Shiyu Du,* Zhifang Chai, Thomas E. Albrecht-Schmitt, and Shuao Wang*. "Rare Earth Separations by Selective Borate Crystallization". Nature Communications, Accepted.
Abstract
Lanthanides possess similar chemical properties rendering their separation from one another a challenge of fundamental chemical and global importance given their incorporation into many advanced technologies. New separation strategies combining green chemistry with low cost and high efficiency remain highly desirable. We demonstrate that the subtle bonding differences among trivalent lanthanides can be amplified during thecrystallization of borates, providing chemical recognition of specific lanthanides that originates from Ln3+ coordinationalterations, borate polymerizationdiversity, and soft ligand coordinationselectivity. Six distinct phases were obtained under identical reaction conditions across lanthanide series,further leading to an efficient and cost-effectiveseparationstrategyvia selective crystallization. As proof of concept, Nd/Sm and Nd/Dy were used as binary models to demonstrate solid/aqueous and solid/solid separation processes. Controlling the reaction kinetics gives rise to enhanced separation efficiency ofNd/Sm system and a one-step quantitative separation of Nd/Dy with the aid of selective density-based flotation.
