Rare Earth Elements (REEs) supply shortages necessitate low cost and efficient processes for the recovery of valuable REE commodities. A covalently anchored polyethylenimine‐epoxysilane‐silica sorbent was prepared by simple wet impregnation and engineered to afford selective separation of REEs into heavy and light element groups. Remarkably, the sorbent cyclically recovered >80% of ppb‐level REEs and ~0% of the ppm‐level Na, Mg, Ca from acid mine drainage solution, highlighting the applicability of the sorbent for concentrating REEs from practical waste streams. Moreover, the sorbent showed promise for pre‐concentration of 7.6 wt% REEs, exceeding the U. S. Department of Energy REEs pre‐concentration objective. Most noteworthy, this is the first time an immobilized amine sorbent was used for the selective separation of the heavier REEs via adsorption‐elution process, allowing only the heavier species (>99% Dy+Yb) to be concentrated. This practical and highly efficient sorbent adsorption‐desorption procedure opens a new avenue to concentrate and obtain high purity REE from low‐concentration REE sources.

中文翻译：

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用于从水溶液中选择性回收重稀土元素（Dy，Yb）的胺吸附剂

稀土元素（REE）的供应短缺需要低成本和有效的过程来回收有价值的REE商品。通过简单的湿法浸渍制备共价锚定的聚乙烯亚胺-环氧硅烷-二氧化硅吸附剂，并进行工程设计以选择性地将REE分离为重元素和轻元素。值得注意的是，吸附剂从酸性矿山排水系统中循环回收了80％以上的ppb级REE和〜0％的ppm级的Na，Mg，Ca，这突出了该吸附剂在从实际废物流中浓缩REE的适用性。此外，该吸附剂还有望实现7.6 wt％REE的预浓缩，超过了美国能源部REE的预浓缩目标。最值得一提的是 这是首次使用固定化的胺吸附剂通过吸附-洗脱过程选择性分离较重的REE，仅浓缩较重的物质（> 99％Dy + Yb）。这种实用，高效的吸附剂吸附解吸程序为浓缩和从低浓度REE来源获得高纯度REE开辟了一条新途径。