Critical Metals Separations & Recycling

Recent global, industrial bottlenecks have highlighted the fragility of critical raw materials supply chains. Critical metals are defined as those having significant need, e.g. in certain technologies, together with a risk of their supply disruption because of scarcity, processing requirements, political disputes—or combinations thereof. Swiftly changing national security and energy security needs are increasing the demand for purified metals, including rare earths, tantalum, niobium, lithium, cobalt, and others. The globalization of strategic metals supply chains has concentrated suppliers in relatively under-developed and sometimes politically unstable parts of the world. And reported metal recycling rates range from only 1–5% in most cases. Existing metals separations are typically unsustainable because of their relatively low efficiencies, large waste burdens, and use of toxic reagents. Our group is working on fundamental and applied chemistries, especially using reactive separations and molecular recognition, towards new hydrometallurgical separation systems that deliver purified metals with minimal environmental harm.

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