Thus, other techniques are required for RE separation/recovery under physiological conditions with low energy input.īiomineralization is a unique phenomenon that proceeds spontaneously under low-energy conditions in living organisms to form organic/inorganic composite materials, such as teeth, bone and pearls 8, 9, 10, 11. However, these require environmentally unfavourable artificial treatments, such as long incubation times, high temperatures, low pH and the use of organic solvents. In principle, all of these attractive approaches exploit electrostatic interactions with Ln 3+ and exhibit controllable accumulation ability. Moreover, a tripod nitroxide ligand successfully separated Dy 3+ and Nd 3+ based on size-sensitive dimerization 7. A metal–organic framework based on homochiral camphorate derivatives, which exhibits ionic radii selective crystallization, was applied to separate light and heavy Ln 3+ (ref. For instance, a hollow fibre membrane system combined with neutral extractants, such as tetraoctyldiglycolamide, was shown to selectively recover Ln species 4, 5. Several studies recently reported the extraction and separation of Ln from transition metals or other Ln species. For sustainable utilization, more environmentally and economically friendly separation/recovery techniques than those currently in use, such as solvent extraction or ion chromatography, are required to directly target scarce Ln distributed in nature and urban mines 2, 3. The global supply of Ln is at risk from the ever-increasing demand. The distinctive electronic features provide special magnetic and optical properties that allow Ln to be applied in various advanced equipment, including hybrid and electric cars, wind turbines, light emitting diode lamps and mobile phones 1, 2. Lanthanide elements (Ln) are a class of rare earth (RE) species consisting of 15 elements with extremely similar character.

Xtractor buffer composition