A MACROMOLECULAR SELECTION PLATFORM FOR THE ISOLATION OF LANTHANIDE IONS

Chemical separations have a significant impact on the global economy and environment, which account for 10-15% of worldwide energy consumption. Motivated by this, a macromolecular selection platform with a focus on rare earth (RE) ion separations as a model system is being pursued. Current methods that promote rare earth element separations rely on energy-demanding distillations and extractions and are not always successful at isolating RE species in the presence of similar ions. To address these challenges, this project is implementing polymers that offer selectivity for RE ion separations. By understanding the fundamental polymer properties required for selective RE ion coordination, the project aims to result in a platform for scalable material design. Three thrusts are pursued: (1) leveraging synthetic approaches to investigate the impact of monomer composition and distribution on polymer hierarchical structure and function, which aim to establish sequence-structure and sequence-function design principles, (2) understanding how molecular level interactions impact hierarchical structure on binding sites for RE ions through the use of advanced characterization techniques such as NMR relaxation times, small angle scattering techniques, and microscopy; and (3) extracting design rules for polymer structure and function using statistical tools and machine learning thereby providing universal workflow approaches for application in other areas of separation science and energy-related challenges.