Separation and preconcentration of cerium (III) and Iron (III) on magnetic nanocomposite hydrogel

Iron is the most significant interfering metal ion during the purification of rare earth elements (REEs) from their mineral sources. Therefore, the current study aims to investigate the sorption behavior of the Ce3+ and Fe3+ ions using polyfunctional nanocomposite hydrogel (NCHG), as well as to provide foundational data for the development of the Ce3+ ions separation procedure. The adsorption capacity was tested in various aqueous media (chloride and sulfate media) to determine the optimal separation conditions for Ce3+ and Fe3+ ions. Numerous parameters, such as contact time, pH, and initial metal ion concentration, may impact the sorption process in batch mode. The results demonstrated that separation is more effective in an aqueous medium than in a chloride medium. In addition, their sorption is poor in sulfate medium, indicating that the prepared nanocomposite was selective in separating cerium from high-grade monazite (in chloride medium). With an adsorption uptake of up to 80% for Ce3+ in an aqueous medium, the synthesized nanocomposite was efficiently utilized for selective separation. The correlation coefficient (R2) of the Langmuir isotherm model was determined to be the highest and closest to 1. The experimental adsorption capacity of Ce3+ was reported at 151 mg/g. The adsorbed Ce3+ was desorbed efficiently from NCHG.