Developing highly efficient recovery materials for precious 'rare earth metals' and improving resource circulation for digital infrastructure

Korea imports 95% of its core minerals such as lithium, nickel, and rare earths. Rare earths, in particular, are characterized by chemical, electrical, magnetic, and luminescent properties that can be achieved by adding only a small amount, and their use has recently increased significantly as core materials in the eco-friendly automobile and renewable energy industries. China, a major producer of rare metals, is controlling the supply through its strategy of weaponizing resources, putting great pressure on the domestic industry.

Dr. Jae-Woo Choi and his team at the Center for Water Cycle Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) recently announced the development of a fiber-based recovery material that can recover rare earth metals such as neodymium (Nd) and dysprosium (Dy) with high efficiency. The new material is expected to contribute to solving rare earth supply and industrial stability issues by recovering and recycling rare earth metals (neodymium-iron-boron (Nd-Fe-B)) that are mainly used in third-generation permanent magnets, which are essential components in the electric vehicle, hybrid vehicle drive motors, wind power, robotics, and aerospace industries.

KIST researchers have developed a nanostructured composite fiber material composed of metal-organic structures and polymer acryl fiber composite fibers to efficiently recover rare earth metals. The adsorptive material is based on acrylic fibers, which are already widely used in Korea, and is economical and productive. The researchers expect that the developed material will be of great industrial use as it easily adsorbs rare earths from waste liquids while facilitating their recovery.

The developed fiber material showed adsorption capacities of 468.60 mg/g for neodymium and 435.13 mg/g for dysprosium, the highest in the world. This is significantly higher than conventional adsorption materials and can be applied to simple reactors, which can significantly improve the energy efficiency of the recovery process.

The team expects the material to be able to effectively recover rare earths not only from waste permanent magnets, but also from a variety of industrial wastewaters containing rare earth metals, such as mine drainage. In particular, its easy surface modification makes it applicable to a wide range of industrial wastewaters, and it is expected to become a technological alternative for securing rare metal resources.

"The high-efficiency rare earth metal recovery material developed in this study is a technology that can replace existing granular adsorption materials, showing excellent results in terms of performance, productivity, economy, and applicability, which will revitalize the digital infrastructure waste mineral extraction ecosystem, and has great potential for industrial application through resource recycling," said Dr. Jae-Woo Choi of KIST. "In the future, the technology can be expanded to selectively recover various useful resources, including rare earths, from industrial wastewater, contributing to carbon neutrality and rare earth-related upstream and downstream industries," said Dr. Youngkyun Jung.

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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Yoo Sang-im) under the KIST Major Project, Leading Materials Innovation Project (2020M3H4A3106366) and Sejong Science Fellowship (RS-2023-00209565). The research results were published in the latest issue of the international journal Advanced Fiber Materials.