The recovery and separation of rare earth elements (REEs) is an emerging area of the current research due to their applications in modern technology and because both accessible and cost-effective approaches are required. In this study, polystyrene (PS) grafted with di(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid ( D2EHPA) ligand was fabricated via the electrospinning technique. The electrospun PS/DEHPA nanofiber mats were characterised using various techniques such as HR-SEM, TGA, FTIR, XRD, BET and ICP-OES. The fabricated electrospun nanofiber materials were then used for the recovery of Nd and Sm metal ions from the aqueous solutions. The supreme sorption uptake of Nd 3+ and Sm 3+ was ˃ 100 mg/g at pH 4.0, reached at an equilibrium time of 70 min with the modified PS/DEHPA nanofiber mats. The recovery of Nd 3+ and Sm 3+ was best described by the Langmuir isotherm and followed a pseudo second-order kinetic model. Thermodynamic data, ΔG°, Δ H° and ΔS° suggest that Nd 3+ sorption onto PS/DEHPA was spontaneous and endothermic. The coordination of PS with the D2EHPA ligand occurred via hydrogen bonding while the binding of PS/DEHPA to the metal ion was likely bonded by ionic, covalent or electrostatic interactions. The reusability investigation indicates that the synthesized PS/DEHPA nanofiber mats can withstand up to four successive cycles, and the adsorption and desorption performances were over 60 %. Nd 3+ sorption in the presence of interfering Ni 2+ and Co 2+ metals was 96.82 mg g -1 (0.671 mmol g -1 ), closer to 101.46 mg g -1 (0.703 mmolg -1 ) obtained in a single metal ion solution suggesting a good selectivity of PS/DEHPA fibres towards REEs (Nd 3+ ).
Mukaba et al. (Sun,) studied this question.
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