Rare earth elements (REEs) are a crucial component of many advanced technologies, particularly within the renewable energy sector, where they are used extensively in wind power and electric vehicle technologies. Although demand for REEs is anticipated to grow significantly in the coming decades, the REE supply is restricted by a monopolistic global marketplace, tedious and costly processing steps for REE production, and environmental hazards associated with mining and extraction. Coal and coal-utilization byproducts have emerged as potential domestic sources for REEs. However, REE production from these sources is currently hindered by slow and expensive characterization techniques. In this study, we demonstrate that metal-organic framework (MOF)-based sensitizers can rapidly detect and distinguish part-per-billion concentration levels of emissive REEs, including terbium, europium, dysprosium, samarium, neodymium, and ytterbium. Importantly, we demonstrate that the MOF structure is crucial for selective REE detection under acidic conditions, an essential step towards sensor deployment in various REE-rich process streams. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate detection of REEs in spiked acid mine drainage systems, and integration of MOF materials with portable instrumentation for field deployment.

Luminescence-based sensing of rare earth elements using zinc adeninate metal-organic frameworks

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.