Highly enhanced selectivity for the separation of rhenium and molybdenum using amino-functionalized magnetic Cu-ferrites

An effective method based on magnetic solid-phase extraction for the selective recovery of rhenium and molybdenum has been developed using diethylamine-functionalized magnetic CuFe2O4 (NH2@CuFe2O4) as adsorbents. Various experimental parameters that could affect the extraction efficiency had been investigated in detail. NH2@CuFe2O4 exhibited high adsorption ability and selectivity to \( {\text{ReO}}₄ ^- \) and \( {\text{MoO}}₄^{2 -} \); selective separation of \( {\text{ReO}}₄ ^- \) and \( {\text{MoO}}₄^{2 -} \) could be achieved by adjusting pH of the aqueous solution. The \( {\text{ReO}}₄ ^- /{\text{MoO}}₄^{2 -} \) adsorption reaction was found to be fast, and the adsorption equilibrium was attained within 6.0 min following a pseudo-second-order model with an observed rate constant (k2) of 0.0215 mg·g−1·min−1/0.0496 mg·g−1·min−1 at 298 K. The adsorption data could be well interpreted by the Langmuir model. The maximum adsorption capacities for \( {\text{ReO}}₄ ^- \) and \( {\text{MoO}}₄^{2 -} \) obtained from the Langmuir model are 41.667 and 62.893 mg g−1, respectively. The extraction recovery of \( {\text{ReO}}₄ ^- /{\text{MoO}}₄^{2 -} \) was more than 93 % from Mo–Re simulated industrial leach liquor.