Boxun Huang

The lanthanide series, also known as the rare–earth elements, is a series of 15 metals that has a wide application in our world. These metals are heavily utilized in the oil refining process, optical devices, and hybrid car batteries. Lanthanide metals naturally are found as mixtures of more than one metal. To utilize them, they must first be separated from each other. This is a challenging task because all lanthanide metals are chemically similar to one another. The current separation methods, countercurrent solvent extraction, which is based on different metals’ solubility profiles, are expensive and inefficient. My project investigates a possible method to separate lanthanides. Specifically, using a ligand that binds to different lanthanide metals with different affinities to achieve lanthanide separation. In a nutshell, the ligand acts like a selective “clamp” to extract out the metal binds stronger with it. My work has found a ligand that shows a consistent binding affinity gradient across the lanthanide series, meaning that it can act as a selective “clamp” to extract an individual lanthanide metal from a mixture of lanthanide metals. Therefore, this ligand could be an excellent lanthanide separator.