Tunable selectivity in hard-soft donor amide ligands for lanthanide and actinide separation

Abstract

The rare earth elements play a crucial role in modern society, especially due to their application in magnets. With a push towards sustainability, this demand is only going to increase. As there are no current alternatives, the efficient recovery of the rare earth elements from primary and secondary sources is critical to ensure supply. Current separation methods utilise organic extractants with limited stability and generate large amounts of hazardous secondary waste. Research into alternative extractants has developed in response, aiming to understand observed selectivity to create efficient systems that reduce environmental impacts. This research has aimed to design and synthesis novel extractants and to gain a more in-depth understanding of selective recognition in extractants for separating chemically similar metals, the development of improved extractants through tuning of structural and electronic parameters, and knowledge of metal extraction mechanisms.

This thesis is embargoed until 31 July 2029.

Date of Award	Jul 2024
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Queen's University Belfast
Sponsors	Ionic Technologies Ltd
Supervisor	Peter Nockemann (Supervisor) & John Holbrey (Supervisor)