Rare earth metal-containing ionic liquids

As an innovative tool, ionic liquids (ILs) are widely employed as an alternative, smart, reaction media (vs. traditional solvents) offering interesting technology solutions for dissolving, processing and recycling of metal-containing materials. The costly mining and refining of rare earths (RE), combined with increasing demand for high-tech and energy-related applications around the world, urgently requires effective approaches to improve the efficiency of rare earth separation and recovery. In this context, ionic liquids appear as an attractive technology solution. This review addresses the structural and coordination chemistry of ionic liquids comprising rare earth metals with the aim to add to understanding prospects of ionic liquids in the chemistry of rare earths

Sustainable Urban Mining of Critical Elements from Magnet and Electronic Wastes

A straightforward and environment-friendly process for acid-free leaching of rare-earth elements and cobalt, which are critical materials, from waste magnet materials has been developed. The process also allows for selective leaching of rare-earth elements from magnet-containing electronic wastes, such as end-of-life hard disk drives and electric motors. The use of copper salts eliminates the use of volatile toxic acids in the dissolution and separation processes, which allows for a more eco-friendly approach to recovering critical elements and a safer work environment. Recovered critical materials were shown to be suitable for reinsertion into the materials supply chain

Unprecedented chemical transformation: crystallographic evidence for 1,1,2,2-tetrahydroxyethane captured within an Fe6Dy3 single molecule magnet

A nonanuclear {Fe6Dy3} coordination cluster displaying SMM behaviour in which an unprecedented chemical transformation provides structural information for the existence of 1,1,2,2-tetrahydroxyethane is reported

Rationally designed rare earth separation by selective oxalate solubilization

A simple, environmentally benign, and efficient chemical separation of rare earth oxalates (CSEREOX) within two rare earth element (REE) subgroups has been developed. The protocol allows for selective solubilization of water-insoluble oxalates of rare earth elements, and results in efficient REE extraction even at low initial concentrations (\u3c5%) from processed magnet wastes

Influence of lanthanides on spin-relaxation and spin-structure in a family of Fe7Ln4 single molecule magnets

A family of isostructural undecanuclear 3d–4f coordination clusters of formula [FeIII7LnIII4O4(OH)3(tea)2(Htea)3(Piv)7(H2O)2(NO3)3], where Ln = Y (1), Gd (2), Tb (3), Dy (4); PivH ≡ pivalic acid and H3tea ≡ triethanolamine, was synthesised. The central Fe7 core of the coordination cluster can be described in terms of two {Fe4O2} butterfly motifs sharing a common body Fe atom. The two Fe4 mean-planes subtend a dihedral angle of ca. 72°. The Tb (3) and Dy (4) compounds show Single Molecule Magnet (SMM) behaviour as confirmed by ac-susceptibility and μ-SQUID measurements. Furthermore, 57Fe Mössbauer spectra of 1–4 confirm the presence of high-spin FeIII sites. The spectra of all complexes in the high temperature range (30–300 K) show broad overlapping doublets which were assigned to the body and wing-tip pairs of metal ions within the Fe7 core. The low temperature Mössbauer spectra show dependence on the nature of the rare-earth metal as a result of its interaction with the iron sites. Thus, we observed a transition from fast (2), to intermediate (1) and very slow (frozen) (3, 4) spin fluctuation phenomena in these compounds

High relaxation barrier in neodymium furoate-based field-induced SMMs

Two new neodymium molecular magnets of formula {[Nd(α-fur)3(H2O)2]·DMF}n (1) and {[Nd0.065La0.935(α-fur)3(H2O)2]}n (2), α-fur = C4H3OCOO, have been synthesized. In (1) the furoate ligands, in bidentate bridging mode, consolidate zig-zag chains running along the a-direction. Compound (2) is a magnetically diluted complex of a polymeric chain along the b-axis. Heat capacity, dc magnetization and ac susceptibility measurements have been performed from 1.8 K up to room temperature. Ab initio calculations yielded the gyromagnetic factors gx* = 0.52, gy* = 1.03, gz* = 4.41 for (1) and gx* = 1.35, gy* = 1.98, gz* = 3.88 for (2), and predicted energy gaps of Δ/kB = 125.5 K (1) and Δ/kB = 58.8 K (2). Heat capacity and magnetometry measurements agree with these predictions, and confirm the non-negligible transversal anisotropy of the Kramers doublet ground state. A weak intrachain antiferromagnetic interaction J′/kB = −3.15 × 10−3 K was found for (1). No slow relaxation is observed at H = 0, attributed to the sizable transverse anisotropy component, and/or dipolar or exchange interactions enhancing the quantum tunnelling probability. Under an external applied field as small as 80 Oe, two slow relaxation processes appear: above 3 K the first relaxation mechanism is associated to a combination of Orbach process, with a sizeable activation energy U/kB = 121 K at 1.2 kOe for (1), Raman and direct processes; the second, slowest relaxation mechanism is associated to a direct process, affected by phonon-bottleneck effect. For complex (2) a smaller U/kB = 61 K at 1.2 kOe is found, together with larger g*-transversal terms, and the low-frequency process is quenched. The reported complexes represent rare polymeric Nd single-ion magnets exhibiting high activation energies among the scarce Nd(III) family

Rare earth metal-containing ionic liquids

As an innovative tool, ionic liquids (ILs) are widely employed as an alternative, smart, reaction media (vs. traditional solvents) offering interesting technology solutions for dissolving, processing and recycling of metal-containing materials. The costly mining and refining of rare earths (RE), combined with increasing demand for high-tech and energy-related applications around the world, urgently requires effective approaches to improve the efficiency of rare earth separation and recovery. In this context, ionic liquids appear as an attractive technology solution. This review addresses the structural and coordination chemistry of ionic liquids comprising rare earth metals with the aim to add to understanding prospects of ionic liquids in the chemistry of rare earths.</p

Recent advances in acid-free dissolution and separation of rare earth elements from the magnet waste

The availability of REEs is limiting the successful deployment of some environmentally friendly and energy-efficient technologies. In 2019, the U.S. generated more than 15.25 billion pounds of e-waste. Only ~15% of it was handled, leaving ~13 billion pounds of e-waste as potential pollutants. Of the 15% collected, the lack of robust technology limited REE recovery for re-use. Key factors that drive the recycling of permanent magnets based on rare earth elements (REEs) and the results of our research on magnet recycling will be discussed, with emphasis on neodymium and samarium-based rare earth permanent magnets.This article is published as Grace Inman, Denis Prodius, Ikenna C. Nlebedim. Recent advances in acid-free dissolution and separation of rare earth elements from the magnet waste. Clean Technologies and Recycling, 2021, 1(2): 112-123. DOI: 10.3934/ctr.2021006. Copyright 2021 The Author(s). DOE Contract Number(s): AC02-07CH11358. Posted with permission

Application of Ionic Liquids for the Recycling and Recovery of Technologically Critical and Valuable Metals

Population growth has led to an increased demand for raw minerals and energy resources; however, their supply cannot easily be provided in the same proportions. Modern technologies contain materials that are becoming more finely intermixed because of the broadening palette of elements used, and this outcome creates certain limitations for recycling. The recovery and separation of individual elements, critical materials and valuable metals from complex systems requires complex energy-consuming solutions with many hazardous chemicals used. Significant pressure is brought to bear on the improvement of separation and recycling approaches by the need to balance sustainability, efficiency, and environmental impacts. Due to the increase in environmental consciousness in chemical research and industry, the challenge for a sustainable environment calls for clean procedures that avoid the use of harmful organic solvents. Ionic liquids, also known as molten salts and future solvents, are endowed with unique features that have already had a promising impact on cutting-edge science and technologies. This review aims to address the current challenges associated with the energy-efficient design, recovery, recycling, and separation of valuable metals employing ionic liquids.This article is published as Inman, Grace, Ikenna C. Nlebedim, and Denis Prodius. "Application of ionic liquids for the recycling and recovery of technologically critical and valuable metals." Energies 15, no. 2 (2022): 628. DOI: 10.3390/en15020628. Copyright 2022 by the authors. Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). DOE Contract Number(s): AC02-07CH11358. Posted with permission

Synthesis, structural characterization and luminescence properties of 1‐carboxymethyl‐3‐ethylimidazolium chloride

A microcrystalline carboxyl-functionalized imidazolium chloride, namely 1-carboxymethyl-3-ethylimidazolium chloride, C7H11N2O2+center dot Cl-, has been synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, attenuated total reflectance Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (ATR-FT-IR), single-crystal X-ray diffraction, thermal analysis (TGA/DSC), and photoluminescence spectroscopy. In the crystal structure, cations and anions are linked by C-H center dot center dot center dot Cl and C-H center dot center dot center dot O hydrogen bonds to create a helix along the [010] direction. Adjacent helical chains are further interconnected through O-H center dot center dot center dot Cl and C-H center dot center dot center dot O hydrogen bonds to form a (10(1) over bar) layer. Finally, neighboring layers are joined together via C-H center dot center dot center dot Cl contacts to generate a three-dimensional supramolecular architecture. Thermal analyses reveal that the compound melts at 449.7 K and is stable up to 560.0 K under a dynamic air atmosphere. Photoluminescence measurements show that the compound exhibits a blue fluorescence and a green phosphorescence associated with spin-allowed ((1)pi <- (1)pi*) and spin-forbidden ((1)pi <- (3)pi*) transitions, respectively. The average luminescence lifetime was determined to be 1.40 ns for the short-lived ((1)pi <- (1)pi*) transition and 105 ms for the long-lived ((1)pi <- (3)pi*) transition.</p