This CMI-funded research was conducted at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Achievement:
Preorganized phenanthroline-based ligand (BLPhen) shows an exceptionally high, reverse selectivity for light lanthanides
Significance and Impact:
Increased separation factors imply the potential for large reduction of numbers of stages (up to 4X) and, by extension, CAPEX in future plants
Research Details:
- Selectivity of BLPhen decreases steeply across the series, the useful opposite of the industrial benchmark
- Unprecedented separation factor of 6.6 for Pr/Nd contrasts with a more typical value of 1.5
- This work underscores the importance of the principle of ligand rigidity to achieve difficult REE selectivity
- BLPhen rejects key competing metals like Fe and Cu but binds strongly with valuable Ag and Pd
Publication:
M. Healy, A. Ivanov, Y. Karslyan, V. Bryantsev, B. Moyer, and S. Jansone-Popova. Chemistry – A European Journal (2019)
doi:10.1002/chem.201806443.