REE separation and extraction method (IMAGE)
Caption
Low-grade sources of rare earth elements (REE), for example from industrial waste, typically contain many rare earth elements and other metals mixed together. A new extraction and separation method relies on a protein called lanmodulin (LanM) that first binds to all the rare earth elements in the source. Then other metals are drained and removed. By changing the conditions of the sample, for example by changing the acidity or adding ingredients called chelators, individual types of rare earth elements become unbound and can be collected. Even when a sample has very low levels of rare earth elements, this new procedure successfully extracts and separates heavy rare earth elements with high purity.
Credit
Dong et al. 2021, ACS Central Science
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