Purification, characterization and application of cherty rocks as sorbent for separation and preconcentration of rare earths

Cherty rocks, most abundant byproduct of mining industry, were used as adsorbent for the extraction of rare earth elements. Purified chert was characterized by various analytical methods (XRD, FX-ED, MEB, FTIR, laser granulometry). XRD patterns showed diffraction peaks of quartz, tridymite, cristobalite and clinoptilolite-Ca phases. SEM micrographs showed granular morphology of studied chert and particle size distribution was lower than 100 μm and unimodal. Adsorption behaviors of La(III) and Ce(III) ions on chert were investigated with various chemical methods and ICP-AES. Various experimental parameters were optimized such as contact time, initial rare earth concentration, temperature, agitation rate, and calcination of chert. Stable adsorption of Ce(III) and La(III) on chert were observed at stirring speed 400 and 200 rpm respectively. However the process of calcination does not affect the adsorption capacity of the two rare earths. The adsorption kinetics, the effect of various parameters influencing the adsorption capacity and adsorption isotherms were determined. Results showed instantaneous adsorption, fast kinetics and maximum percentages of adsorption ranged between 80 and ∼100%. Highest correlation coefficients were obtained for the pseudo-second order kinetic that are described satisfactorily by the Langmuir model. Thermodynamic parameters obtained indicate an endothermic and spontaneous adsorption process for lanthanum and exothermic and nonspontaneous adsorption process for cerium. Adsorption of rare earths on chert showed similar adsorption capacities to commercial diatomaceous earth and low matrix effect was observed when chert is used as an adsorbent of REE from a phosphogypsum leachate. Keywords: Chert, La(III), Ce(III), Adsorption/desorption, Kinetics, Thermodynamic