Metal-Organic Framework-based Luminescent Sensors for Rare Earth Elements

Conference · Tue Apr 06 00:00:00 EDT 2021

OSTI ID:1814171

Crawford, Scott ^[1]; Baltrus, John ^[2]

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1. Materials Characterization Team
2. NETL

Rare earth elements (REEs) are crucial for many applications and are particularly important in wind power and electric vehicle technologies, spurring projected demand increases for REEs in coming decades. However, the REE supply is restricted by a monopolistic global marketplace, tedious and costly processing steps for REE production, and environmental hazards associated with mining and processing. Coal and coal-utilization byproducts have emerged as potential domestic sources for REEs, however REE production from these sources is currently hindered by slow and expensive characterization techniques. Here, we demonstrate that metal-organic framework (MOF)-based sensitizers can effectively serve as luminescent sensors capable of rapidly detecting and distinguishing part-per-billion concentration levels of emissive REEs, including terbium, europium, dysprosium, samarium, neodymium, and ytterbium. Importantly, we demonstrate that the MOF structure plays a significant role in tuning the selectivity of the MOF for REEs in acidic environments, an essential step towards deployment in various REE-rich process streams. As a proof-of-concept, we demonstrate sensitive and reversible detection of REEs using a portable fiber-optic spectrometer

• Research Organization: National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
• DOE Contract Number: FWP-1022420
• OSTI ID: 1814171
• Resource Relation: Conference: Conference Name: Pittcon 2021 Location: N/A, N/A, N/A Start Date: 3/8/2021 12:00:00 AM End Date: 3/12/2021 12:00:00 AM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English