The rare earth elements: La-Lu, and Y are used in renewable energy applications including wind turbine generators, hybrid and electric vehicles and energy efficient lighting. The People�s Republic of China currently holds a monopoly of the global rare earths market, yet China holds only 37% of proven global reserves of rare earths. To diversify the global supply chain of rare earths there is a need for advances in separations chemistry that reduce the cost of industrial-scale liquid-liquid rare earths separations. In an effort to develop new, targeted separations schemes we are developing designer rare earth extractants that are especially selective for certain high value rare earths. Towards this goal we have prepared metal complexes of nitroxide ligands and evaluated their physicochemical properties. The talk will describe fundamental synthetic and characterization efforts in this area and how the work is expected to develop into a new separations strategy for rare earths.

New chemistry for rare earth separations to address an impending shortfall

244th National Meeting (2012)

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