Sorption of rare earth elements onto basaluminite: The role of sulfate and pH

Scandium, yttrium and lanthanides (REE) are critical raw materials in increasing demand for modern technology, so identifying and developing new sources of REE has become a pressing need. REE concentrations in acid mine drainage (AMD) are several orders of magnitude higher than those in natural water, and their recovery is of economic interest. Passive remediation systems designed to minimize AMD impact on the ecosystem retain REE in solid waste, where basaluminite, Al4SO4(OH)10·5H2O, is the mineral responsible for the scavenge. However, no information about the retention mechanisms of REE is currently available in the literature. The objective of the present work is to study the adsorption of lanthanides, yttrium and scandium onto synthetic basaluminite over a pH range of 4–7 at room conditions. Since sulfate is ubiquitous in AMD, the adsorption has been investigated with variable sulfate concentrations. Experimental results show that sorption onto basaluminite is strongly dependent on pH, starting at pH 5 for lanthanides and yttrium and at pH 4 for scandium. At any given pH values, sorption increases with sulfate concentration. Distribution coefficients, defined as KD = [REEsorbed]/[REEsolution], are higher for Sc, and across the lanthanide series, the distribution coefficients increase from La to Lu according to decreasing ionic radius, where yttrium is considered close to Ho. Experimental results were modeled using a sorption model that considers mass law equations where the strong sulfate aqueous complex, MSO4 +, is adsorbed by exchanging a proton with the mineral surface. The dependence of the experimental results on pH suggests the formation of monodentate binding for Y and lanthanides. The bidentate complex for Sc is deduced by the two proton exchange per mol of Sc extracted from the experiments. The thermodynamic constants for the surface complexation reactions were obtained from experiments with high sulfate concentration and were successfully applied to the experiment with low sulfate content and different solid-liquid ratios. Therefore, the model can be applied to interpret the REE geochemistry in natural systems with variable pH and sulfate concentrations. © 2019 Elsevier Ltd

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Lozano, Alba, Ayora, Carlos, Fernández-Martínez, Alejandro
Other Authors:	Lozano, Alba [0000-0003-4050-6906]
Format:	artículo biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	Elsevier 2019-08-01
Subjects:	Fractionation, Lanthanides, Monodentate surface species, Scandium, Non-electrostatic model, Sorption edge, Sorption model, Yttrium,
Online Access:	http://hdl.handle.net/10261/202016
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