The mounting demand for rare earth elements (REEs) and the similarities in their chemical and physical properties render their separation and selective recovery quite challenging. Microbe-based adsorbents are quite effective owing to their diverse functional groups on the cell wall and are perceived to be environmentally benign. This work reports the application of yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) embedded in cellulose matrix as an efficient adsorbent for the separation of Eu­(III) from aqueous medium. The fungi–biopolymer combination acts as a good host to welcome Eu­(III) on its surface through effective coordination with the diverse functional groups. The pH, adsorbent dosage, isotherm studies, and thermodynamic and kinetic parameters were studied, and the characterization was done using FT-IR, XRD, XRF, XPS, SEM-EDX, BET, and confocal microscopy techniques. Ion chromatography was used to monitor the quantitative measurement of Eu­(III) during the course of adsorption and desorption process. The regeneration of the biosorbent was achieved using EDTA as the complexing agent for Eu­(III). The biosorbent gives a maximum adsorption capacity of 25.91 mg g–1 through Langmuir isotherm model. Further, the biosorbent was employed to recover Eu­(III) from a phosphor powder containing other rare earths as well as phosphor powder from a spent fluorescent lamp.

Adsorption of uranium at pH 6.0 using phosphorylated carbon nanofibers.

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