Efficient sorption and group separation of rare earth elements using modified CuO nanocomposite

Radioactive waste from aquatic nuclear power plants includes long-lived radiotoxic trivalent lanthanides. Because of the growing demand for rare-earth elements (REEs) in high-tech applications, new sustainable approaches to REE recycling and separation have been developed. Separation of rare earth elements (REEs) is extremely difficult due to their similarity in properties. Also, Fe2O3 is the major contaminant of REE recovery. As a result, the purpose of this work is to create a novel nano composite, sodium alginate grafted polyacrylic acid/CuO, SA-g-(PAA/CuO). Modified nano CuO is prepared using sol-gel technique and calcinied at 600 °C/2h. The SA-g-(PAA/CuO) nanocomposite was created using free radical polymerization with 60 Co gamma irradiation at a dose of 25 KGy. The prepared composite was characterised by FT-IR, XRD, TG-DTA, SEM, particle size analysis, TEM, and pore size distribution. SA-g-(PAA) with 10% nano CuO, SA-g-(PAA/CuO)-II, is investigated for the sorption of light rare earth elements (La3+, Ce3+) and intermediate rare earth elements (Eu3+) at 25 °C and heavy rare earth elements (Y3+) at pH 4.5. Sorption of contaminants (Fe3+) is studied at pH 2.5. The equilibrium of sorption reaction is attained at 5 h. The obtained results showed that the monolayer capacities for La3+, Ce3+, Eu3+, Fe3+, and Y3+ are 83.68, 90.83, 94.69, 24.66, and 7.52 mgg-1, respectively. SA-g-(PAA/CuO)-II nanocomposite efficiently separates La3+, Ce3+, and Eu3+ from Fe3+ and Y3+.