The selective adsorption of rare earth elements by modified coal fly ash based SBA-15

Rare earth elements (REE) are strategic resources and the recycling of REE in alternative resources is urgent and gets increasingly attention. However, the separation of REE in these alternative resources is still a challenge due to the low concentration of REE and multi coexisted ions in acidic system. In this study, the species distribution of REE within the pH 0-8.0 was calculated. The SBA-15 originated from coal fly ash was modified by two steps with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxysilane (APTES) and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic dianhydride (DTPADA) to obtain DTPADA-SBA-15 adsorbent, which was applied to the selective adsorption of REE. The results showed that DTPADA-SBA-15 possessed excellent adsorption performance on the selective adsorption of REE, including Eu, Gd, Tb, Nd and Sm, in acidic solution (pH 2) with multi competing ions. The FT-IR and Zeta potential characterization verified that the chemical adsorption through the coordination of O in DTPADA-SBA-15 with REE was dominant at lower pH value. The study of adsorption kinetics indicated that the adsorption of rare earth metal ions followed pseudo-second-order kinetic, of which the adsorption process followed the Langmuir isotherm model.