The preparation of supported ionic liquids (SILs) and their application in rare metals separation

This review summarizes the preparation methods of support ionic liquids (SILs) and their applications in rare metals separation. The rare metals separation includes the recovery of high value metal ions and the removal of heavy metal ions from wastewater. SILs can be used as a kind of highly efficient multifunctional separation materials. The preparation methods of SILs include chemical immobilization technique in which ILs moieties are supported on solid supports via covalent bonds and physical immobilization techniques in which ILs are immobilized on solid supports via physical method such as simple impregnation, sol-gel method. According to the difference of solid supports, this review summarizes the application of polymer supported ionic liquids (P-SILs), silica based material supported ionic liquids (SM-SILs) and membrane supported ionic liquids (M-SILs) in rare metals separation. P-SILs and SM-SILs prepared by chemical method with N-methylimidazolium group can be used as highly efficient anion exchangers with high thermal stability and good chemical stability for adsorption of Cr(VI), Re(VII), Ce(IV). P-SILs prepared via simple impregnation afforded IL functionalized solvent impregnated resins (SIRs) which showed high separation efficiency and selectivity in the separation of rare earths(III) (REs(III)). SM-SILs prepared via sol-gel method with IL doped in the support as porogens or extractant show high removal efficiencies and excellent stability for the separation of RE(III), Cr(III) and Cr(VI). M-SILs with IL as plasticizer or carrier show improved stability, high permeability coefficient and good selectivity for Cr(VI) transport. Different supports and different supporting methods were sufficiently compared. Based on the different practical application, different forms of SILs can be prepared for separation of rare metals with high separation efficiency and selectivity.