Ion imprinted polymer particles for separation of yttrium from selected lanthanides

Abstract

Lanthanide(III) (Dy, Gd, Tb and Y) ion imprinted polymer (IIP) materials were synthesized via single pot reaction by mixing lanthanide imprint ion with 5,7-dichloroquinoline-8-ol, 4-vinylpyridine, styrene, divinylbenzene and 2,2'-azobisisobutyronitrile in 2-methoxyethanol porogen. The imprint ion was removed by stirring the above materials (after powdering) with 6 mol/L HCl to obtain the respective lanthanide IIP particles. Y-Dy, Y-Gd and Dy-Gd polymer particles were obtained by physically mixing equal amounts of the respective leached individual lanthanide(III) particles. Control polymer (CP) particles were similarly prepared without imprint ion. Application of the above synthesized polymer particles was tested for separation of Y from Dy, Gd and Tb employing batch and column SPE methods using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry for the determination. Optimization studies show that Y present in 500 mL can be preconcentrated using Dy-Gd IIP particles and eluted with 20 mL of 1.0 mol/L of HCl, providing an enrichment factor of approximately 25. Dy-Gd IIP particles offer higher selectivity coefficients for Y over other lanthanides compared to other IIP particles and commercial liquid-liquid extractants. Selectivity studies for Y over other coexisting inorganic species (other than lanthanides) were also conducted and the results obtained show a quantitative separation of Y from other inorganics other than Cu(II) and Fe(III). Furthermore, both batch and column studies indicate the purification of yttrium concentrate from 55.0 +/- 0.2 to 65.2 +/- 0.2% in a single stage of operation.

Current status and challenges of ion imprinting

“…Employing a SPE method, Rao and his team performed some imprinting applications using rare earth ions. They synthesized IIP particles via a single pot reaction for separation of Y(III) from selected lanthanides, 233 and Er(III) IIP particles via thermally copolymerizing 234 and photochemical polymerization, 235 respectively. What's more, Nd(III) IIP materials 236 were prepared as well and also had good results.…”

Application of an Hg2+ selective imprinted polymer as a new modifying agent for the preparation of a novel highly selective and sensitive electrochemical sensor for the determination of ultratrace mercury ions

“…MIP technology has been developed as a method for the preparation of synthetic receptors by polymerization of self assembled complexes, formed by functional monomers and a template in the pre-polymerization mixture [42][43][44][45][46][47][48]. This technology can also be used for the preparation of polymers containing inorganic cation selective sites as the so-called ion imprinted polymers (IIP) [49][50][51][52]. Different kinds of imprinted polymers have so far been reported for the recognition of mercury ions [53][54][55][56].…”

A miniaturized sensing device with ionically imprinted nanostructured films for the ultrasensitive detection of ions

“…Thus, specific recognition elements can be developed virtually for any compound [31,32] . To date, this approach has been applied mostly to the detection of cations, including copper [33][34][35] , cadmium [36,37] , mercury [38] and lead [39] , and rare earth metal ions such as europium [40] and yttrium [41] . However, due to the weak interaction of the anions with the chelating species commonly found, thus far there has been a limited development in this field.…”