Novel Styrene-Based Polyamine Sorbent for Efficient Selective Separation of Molybdenum

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Chemical Engineering
• Environmental Science

Background:

• Tungsten (W) and molybdenum (Mo) are critical strategic metals often found together in ores and waste streams.
• Efficient separation of W and Mo is crucial for obtaining pure metal products and resource recovery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop novel polyamine resins for enhanced separation of tungsten and molybdenum.
• To investigate the sorption capacity and selectivity of these new resins for MoS₄²⁻ ions.

Main Methods:

• Synthesis of two new polyamine resins (D301@PA and D301@TA) using a dipping method with D301 resin and assembled amines.
• Sorption experiments to evaluate resin performance for MoS₄²⁻.
• Characterization using SEM, BET, and XPS to elucidate the sorption mechanism.

Main Results:

• The new resins, D301@PA and D301@TA, demonstrated significantly improved selectivity and sorption capacity for MoS₄²⁻.
• D301@TA exhibited a maximum sorption capacity of 414 mg·g⁻¹ and a separation factor of 108 for Mo/W.
• Ion exchange between Cl⁻ in the resin and MoS₄²⁻ was identified as the primary sorption mechanism.

Conclusions:

• The developed polyamine resins offer a green and efficient method for separating tungsten and molybdenum.
• D301@TA shows exceptional performance, making it a promising material for industrial W-Mo separation processes.