Lanthanides have become inescapable components in technology that we use in daily life. Mining and purification, via liquid-liquid extraction, produces a significant amount of hazardous waste, generating interest to improve the separations processes to render lanthanide separation more efficient and environmentally conscious. Continued research in this area also has the potential to increase the viability of new sources, for example, recycling of electronics that contain valuable lanthanide metals. Yet, efficient separations of lanthanide metals possess a unique challenge, as they share similar reactivity, ionic radii, and uniform oxidation state. Diglycolamide extractants were first developed for nuclear separations, and more recently, have emerged as highly effective ligands for lanthanide separations with good selectivity. Herein, we present a new series of diglycolamides and study their structure – property relationships for the enhanced and selective partitioning of lanthanides from hydrochloric acid media. Efforts to develop fundamental, new separations chemistry for the recycling and processing critical metals will be presented.

Characterization of diglycolamide-based ligands for adjacent lanthanide separation

ACS Fall 2021

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