Extraction of rare earth ions from phosphate leach solution using emulsion liquid membrane in concentrated nitric acid medium

It is very significant to recover rare earths （REs） from wet-process phosphoric acid, in terms of extraction rate and selectivity, the current carrier di（2-ethlhexly） phosphate （D2EHPA） out there is still inferior. Based on this question, our team modified D2EHPA to synthesize new extractants. This paper presents a comprehensive study on the extraction of rare earth ions （RE3＋） from phosphate leach solution using emulsion liquid membrane （ELM） in concentrated nitric acid medium. The ELM system is made up of （RO）2P（O）OPh-COOH as carrier, polyisocrotyl succinimide （T154） as surfactant, sulfonated kerosene as diluent, phosphoric acid （H3PO4） as stripping solution. Different chemical parameters such as type and concentration of carrier, surfactant, stripping solution, volume ratio of oil phase to internal phase, and volume ratio of emulsion ratio to external phase were analyzed. The extraction of RE^3＋ was evaluated by the yield of extraction. In addition, the demulsification process was also investigated. The proposed method of ELM using （RO）2P（O）OPh-COOH as carrier can he expected to provide an efficient, simplify operation, and facilitated method for extractine RE^3＋.

Z-scheme Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)heterojunctions enable exceptional visible photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutant

One key strategy to enhance photocatalytic performance is to improve the transfer and separation efficiency of photogenerated carriers by building optimized heterojunctions.Herein,novel Bi_(4)O_5Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)Z-scheme heterojunctions are fabricated and used as photocatalysts for organic pollutant photodegradation.The NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)nanosheets are exfoliated via a self-developed alkali solution stripping approach and then uniformly decorated on Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2).The as-prepared Bi_(4)O_(5)Br_(2)/NH_(2)-MIL-125(Ti)presents more than 90%degradation of various pollutants,outperforming the counterpart individual ones.The various characterization results suggest that the enhanced degradation rate is due to the more intimate face-to-face interfacial contact of the lamellar Z-scheme heterojunction materials,in which the migration path of carriers from the material's interior to the surface can be reduced,in turn enhancing migration efficiency and separation capability significantly.A possible photocatalytic reaction mechanism is proposed based on the photoelectric behaviors,radical trapping experiments and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry analysis.This work promotes the development of new photocatalytic materials for heterojunctions with face-to-face interfacial contacts,as well as the effective purification of wastewater in environmental remediation.