Environmentally Friendly Polymeric Sorbent Material for the Extraction and Determination of Rare Earth Elements, Thorium, and Uranium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2024050924-A1
Application number	US-202318227497-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Jul 28, 2023
Priority date	Aug 3, 2022
Publication date	Feb 15, 2024
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method for extracting a metal species from a solution is described, where the metal species comprises a rare earth element, Th, or U. The method involves the use of poly(caffeic acid) as a sorbent material. The poly(caffeic acid) may be crosslinked with a diamine crosslinker such as ethylenediamine.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method for extracting a metal from a solution, the method comprising:
dispersing a sorbent material in an aqueous solution containing a metal species to form a dispersed solution in which the metal species coordinates with the sorbent material; and removing the sorbent material from the dispersed solution to extract the metal species from the aqueous solution; wherein the sorbent material comprises poly(caffeic acid); and wherein the metal species comprises a rare earth element, Th, or U.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the poly(caffeic acid) has a diamine crosslinker.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the poly(caffeic acid) has an ethylenediamine crosslinker.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent material comprises Formula I:

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent material is dispersed in the aqueous solution without a support.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent material is bound to a support.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the sorbent material is not bound to a support.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the metal species includes one or more of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Th, and U.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution comprises a plurality of rare earth elements, and each of the plurality of rare earth elements is extracted by the sorbent material.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the dispersing comprises mixing the sorbent material in the aqueous solution with ultra-sonication for a period of time.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution has a pH ranging from 2.0 to 6.0.

12 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the dispersing is conducted at room temperature.

13 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the removing comprises filtering the dispersed solution to separate the sorbent material from the dispersed solution.

14 . The method of claim 13 , further comprising analyzing a filtrate from the filtering to determine a percent removal of the metal species.

15 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising washing the removed sorbent material with a desorption solvent to desorb the metal species from the sorbent material.

16 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising collecting the desorption solvent after the washing and analyzing the collected desorption solvent to determine a percent recovery of the metal species.

17 . The method of claim 15 , further comprising re-using the sorbent material for a further extraction of rare earth elements, Th, or U.

18 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the aqueous solution further comprises one or more non-rare earth metal ion species.

19 . A composition comprising poly(caffeic acid) dispersed in an aqueous solution containing a metal species comprising a rare earth element, Th, or U.

20 . The composition of claim 19 , wherein the poly(caffeic acid) is crosslinked with a diamine.

Assignees

• Univ Toledo

Inventors

• Kirchhoff Jon R
• Adhikari Sandhya
• Shyam Sunder Govind Sharma

Classifications

• Y02P10/20

  Recycling · CPC title

• B01J20/262 Primary

  obtained otherwise than by reactions only involving carbon to carbon unsaturated bonds, e.g. obtained by polycondensation (macromolecular compounds obtained otherwise than by reactions only involving unsaturated carbon-to-carbon bonds per se C08G) · CPC title

• C08G73/0206

  Polyalkylene(poly)amines · CPC title

• B01D15/203

  Equilibration or regeneration · CPC title

• C22B3/24

  by adsorption on solid substances, e.g. by extraction with solid resins · CPC title