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Scandium is a rare earth element that has a wide range of uses in modern technology. The conventional recovery of scandium is commonly done by solvent extraction using organophosphorus compounds. This process however produces a lot of waste extractants. To circumvent this challenge, a model organophosphorus compound phenylphosphinic acid (PPI) was immobilized to a polymer support fabric to produce a Sc(III) adsorbent for high throughput scandium recovery with less waste generation. Polymer support (PP-g-PGMA)for the organophosphorus compound was synthesized using radiation-induced graft polymerization. Successful post-polymer modification of the PGMA grafts to attach PPI groups was carried out using 1 M PPI in isopropanol at 80 C for 4 h, achieving a maximum functional group density of 1.32 mmol/g. The obtained PP-g-PGMA-PPI fabrics were used in the batch Sc(III) adsorption experiments. The results showed that PP-g-PGMA-PPI effectively adsorbed low concentrations of Sc(III) at a pH of at least 2.0. More than 98% adsorption was achieved using 1 ppm Sc(III). The synthesized adsorbent was also shown to be selective for Sc(III) even in the presence of Fe(III) and Al(III) ions. PP-g-PGMA-PPI adsorbent fabrics are therefore promising alternatives to solvent extraction methods and ion-exchange granular resin technologies in the recovery of scandium.

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