Methods for selective recovery of rare earth elements and metals from coal ash by ionic liquids

Abstract

An exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure provides a method to extract components from a metal-containing material, forming a first multicomponent system comprising an ionic liquid and a first aqueous component, wherein the first aqueous component and the ionic liquid form an immiscible mixture when the first multicomponent system is at a temperature below a critical temperature, contacting a metal-containing material with the first multicomponent system, adjusting the temperature of the first multi-component system above the first critical temperature to form a miscible mixture with the ionic liquid and the first aqueous component, reverting the temperature of the first multicomponent system below the critical temperature to form an immiscible mixture with the ionic liquid and the first aqueous component, and isolating the ionic liquid from the first aqueous component and the metal-containing material, wherein the ionic liquid comprises one or more metals from the metal-containing material.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.