Biosynthesis of jarosite and schwertmannite for efficient adsorption of rare earth elements from mine wastewater

Abstract

With the growing awareness of environmental protection and the increasing demand for rare earth elements (REEs), it has become necessary to efficiently remove and recover REEs from mine wastewater. In this study, jarosite (Jar) and schwertmannite (Sch) were biosynthesized using Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans for the adsorption of REEs. Additionally, the adsorption capacities of Jar and Sch for La³⁺, Ce³⁺, Pr³⁺, Nd³⁺, Sm³⁺, Gd³⁺, Dy³⁺, and Y³⁺ in mine wastewater were improved by mechanical activation. XRD, FTIR, BET, and SEM-EDS analyses revealed that mechanical activation did not alter the phase of the material, but increased the amount of surface -OH and SO₄²⁻ groups, as well as the specific surface area. This significantly enhanced the adsorption performance of Jar and Sch for REEs. The optimum adsorption time and pH were determined through batch adsorption experiments. Besides, the adsorption kinetics were studied and found to align well with the pseudo-second-order model. Furthermore, the thermodynamic parameters (ΔG^Θ, ΔH^Θ and ΔS^Θ) and adsorption isotherms were analyzed. The results indicated that mechanically activated schwertmannite (M-Sch) exhibited superior adsorption performance for REEs compared to mechanically activated jarosite (M-Jar). Moreover, M-Sch was reusable and exhibited high adsorption efficiency of REEs in actual mine wastewater, exceeding 92%.

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