Abstract
A nonwoven fabric adsorbent loaded with 2-ethylhexyl hydrogen-2-ethylhexylphosphonate (EHEP) was developed for the separation and recovery of dysprosium (Dy) and neodymium (Nd) from an aqueous solution. The adsorbent was prepared by the radiation-induced graft polymerization of a methacrylate monomer with a long alkyl chain onto a nonwoven fabric and the subsequent loading of EHEP by hydrophobic interaction and chain entanglement between the alkyl chains. The adsorbent was evaluated by batch and column tests with a Dy (III) and Nd (III) aqueous solution. In the batch tests, the adsorbent showed high Dy (III) adsorptivity close to 25.0 mg/g but low Nd (III) adsorptivity below 1.0 mg/g, indicating that the adsorbent had high selective adsorption. In particular, the octadecyl methacrylate (OMA)-adsorbent showed adsorption stability in repeated tests. In the column tests, the OMA-adsorbent was also stable and showed high Dy (III) adsorptivity and high selectivity in repeated adsorption–elution circle tests. This result suggested that the OMA-adsorbent may be a promising adsorbent for the separation and recovery of Dy (III) and Nd (III) ions.
Highlights
Rare earths including scandium, yttrium, and 15 lanthanoid elements, have recently become indispensable materials for the high-tech industry
We attempted to load EHEP onto polyethylene-coated polypropylene (PE/PP) nonwoven fabrics to develop a novel adsorbent for rare-earth ions
5.0 wt.% in water for Butyl methacrylate (BMA), hexyl methacrylate (HMA), and dodecyl methacrylate (DMA), and in a water/methanol mixture solvent (1:1 in weight) for octadecyl methacrylate (OMA); 0.5 wt.% of Tween 20 surfactant was added to the monomer solutions. *** Preirradiation was performed at −80 ◦ C
Summary
Yttrium, and 15 lanthanoid elements, have recently become indispensable materials for the high-tech industry. Adsorption techniques using adsorbents, such as inorganic particles, ion-exchange resins, and polymer ligands, are attractive for the separation and recovery of rare-earth ions [29,30,31,32,33,34,35,36] This is because the adsorption process does not require much energy and water and can be operated anywhere by batch or column methods [37]. We attempted to load EHEP onto polyethylene-coated polypropylene (PE/PP) nonwoven fabrics to develop a novel adsorbent for rare-earth ions For this purpose, we grafted a polymerized methacrylate monomer with a long alkyl chain onto the fabrics. The effects of the alkyl chain length of the monomers on the stability and adsorption performance of the EHEP-loaded absorbents were studied and evaluated
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