Selectively removal of Al(III) from Pr(III) and Nd(III) rare earth solution using surface imprinted polymer

Abstract Rare earth is a very important strategic resource. But, impurities, such as Al 3+ , have great influence on the properties of rare earth material. In this paper, an Al 3+ -ionic imprinted polyamine functionalized silica gel sorbent was prepared by a surface imprinting technique for selectively adsorbing Al 3+ from rare earth solution. The adsorption and recognition properties of IIP-PEI/SiO 2 for Al 3+ were studied in detail. The experimental results showed that IIP-PEI/SiO 2 possessed strong adsorption affinity, specific recognition ability, and excellent selectivity for Al 3+ . The adsorption isotherm data greatly obey the Langmuir model, and the adsorption was typical monolayer. The adsorption capacity could reach to 1.98 mmol g −1 , and relative selectivity coefficients relative to Pr 3+ and Nd 3+ are 23.47 and 22.85, respectively. Besides, IIP-PEI/SiO 2 was regenerated easily using diluted hydrochloric acid solution as eluent and IIP-PEI/SiO 2 possesses better reusability.