Nanostructured Hybrid Materials for the Selective Recovery and Enrichment of Rare Earth Elements

The importance of rare-earth elements (REEs) in the global economy is booming as they are used in numerous advanced technologies. Industrially, the extraction and purification of REEs involve multiple liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) steps as they exhibit very similar complexation properties with most common ligands. In order to substantially improve this process and provide a greener alternative to LLE, functional porous hybrid materials, demonstrating enhanced selectivity towards heavier REEs compared to commercially-available products, are proposed. In addition, because of the grafting procedure used in the synthesis, the proposed materials demonstrate a higher degree of reusability, increasing their marketable potential.