TY - JOUR
T1 - Selective and Efficient Biomacromolecular Extraction of Rare-Earth Elements using Lanmodulin
AU - Deblonde, Gauthier J.P.
AU - Mattocks, Joseph A.
AU - Park, Dan M.
AU - Reed, David W.
AU - Cotruvo, Joseph A.
AU - Jiao, Yongqin
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by the Critical Materials Institute (CMI), a Department of Energy (DOE) Innovation Hub led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory and supported by the DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office. CMI seeks ways to reduce supply risks on rare-earth metals and other materials critical to the success of clean energy technologies. This work was performed under the auspices of the U.S. DOE by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (LLNL-JRNL-805884) and DOE Idaho Operations Office Contract No. DE-AC07-05ID14517. J.A.C. also thanks the Pennsylvania State University Department of Chemistry, Huck Institutes of Life Sciences, a Louis Martarano Career Development Professorship, and a Lab to Bench Commercialization Grant from Invent Penn State for funding. The authors thank A. Middleton, H. Hsu-Kim, S. Wang, and M. Gonzales for help with the ICP-MS analyses. The authors thank N. Theaker for providing lignite leachate solutions.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2020 American Chemical Society.
PY - 2020/9/8
Y1 - 2020/9/8
N2 - Lanmodulin (LanM) is a recently discovered protein that undergoes a large conformational change in response to rare-earth elements (REEs). Here, we use multiple physicochemical methods to demonstrate that LanM is the most selective macromolecule for REEs characterized to date and even outperforms many synthetic chelators. Moreover, LanM exhibits metal-binding properties and structural stability unseen in most other metalloproteins. LanM retains REE binding down to pH ≈ 2.5, and LanM-REE complexes withstand high temperature (up to 95 °C), repeated acid treatments, and up to molar amounts of competing non-REE metal ions (including Mg, Ca, Zn, and Cu), allowing the protein's use in harsh chemical processes. LanM's unrivaled properties were applied to metal extraction from two distinct REE-containing industrial feedstocks covering a broad range of REE and non-REE concentrations, namely, precombustion coal and electronic waste leachates. After only a single all-aqueous step, quantitative and selective recovery of the REEs from all non-REEs initially present (Li, Na, Mg, Ca, Sr, Al, Si, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and U) was achieved, demonstrating the universal selectivity of LanM for REEs against non-REEs and its potential application even for industrial low-grade sources, which are currently underutilized. Our work indicates that biosourced macromolecules such as LanM may offer a new paradigm for extractive metallurgy and other applications involving f-elements.
AB - Lanmodulin (LanM) is a recently discovered protein that undergoes a large conformational change in response to rare-earth elements (REEs). Here, we use multiple physicochemical methods to demonstrate that LanM is the most selective macromolecule for REEs characterized to date and even outperforms many synthetic chelators. Moreover, LanM exhibits metal-binding properties and structural stability unseen in most other metalloproteins. LanM retains REE binding down to pH ≈ 2.5, and LanM-REE complexes withstand high temperature (up to 95 °C), repeated acid treatments, and up to molar amounts of competing non-REE metal ions (including Mg, Ca, Zn, and Cu), allowing the protein's use in harsh chemical processes. LanM's unrivaled properties were applied to metal extraction from two distinct REE-containing industrial feedstocks covering a broad range of REE and non-REE concentrations, namely, precombustion coal and electronic waste leachates. After only a single all-aqueous step, quantitative and selective recovery of the REEs from all non-REEs initially present (Li, Na, Mg, Ca, Sr, Al, Si, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and U) was achieved, demonstrating the universal selectivity of LanM for REEs against non-REEs and its potential application even for industrial low-grade sources, which are currently underutilized. Our work indicates that biosourced macromolecules such as LanM may offer a new paradigm for extractive metallurgy and other applications involving f-elements.
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U2 - 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c01303
DO - 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.0c01303
M3 - Article
C2 - 32686425
AN - SCOPUS:85089193981
SN - 0020-1669
VL - 59
SP - 11855
EP - 11867
JO - Inorganic chemistry
JF - Inorganic chemistry
IS - 17
ER -