Revealing rare-earth elements with microscopy

Obtaining rare-earth elements (REEs)—ranging from terbium to lithium—involves soaking chemical compounds in vats of kerosene to separate the atoms. It’s messy and expensive, and because of safety and biological concerns, the United States depends on other countries to extract rare-earth elements from mined ores or recycled materials.

But scientists at Case Western Reserve University hope to completely upend the process of refining these minerals, which are necessary in hundreds of high-tech applications, including cell phones, computer hard drives and medications.

Toward that goal, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded Lydia Kisley, an assistant professor of physics in the university’s College of Arts and Sciences, with an Early Career Award. The five-year, $875,000 grant seeks to understand the process of separating and extracting rare-earth elements—essential for green technologies—by imaging efficient and environmentally sustainable separation technologies that are under development.

The grant will support the efforts of Kisley and her collaborations with two other scientists. For starters, the Kisley Lab will develop a new, groundbreaking microscope, which would provide new details obscured in traditional methods .

“We will be able to see the atoms binding at surfaces designed to capture these REEs as they’re happening in real time,” Kisley said. “Think of it as a colander capturing metal ions. We will be able to see what’s happening.”

According to the DOE’s grant announcement, Kisley’s work could “dramatically reduce the environmental costs of REE extraction, offering a more sustainable approach to support clean energy infrastructure. This award is a significant recognition of Dr. Kisley’s contributions to the field of physics and her leadership in advancing sustainable technologies.”

By leveraging physics and nature’s own “toolbox,” specifically biomolecules like proteins, Kisley aims to understand how these elements can be extracted from complex sourcesThe biomolecules can be used in water-based solutions and be immobilized on solid supports. Kisley will specifically be imaging how size and porosity effect the ability to separate REEs.

“It’s an exciting time at CWRU for this science of separation,” Kisley said. “I am truly passionate that this effort needs more student involvement. This is directly related to our green future, to removing greenhouse gasses, and finding alternatives to fossil fuels.”

Kisley credits her colleagues and collaborators on campus—including graduate student Ricardo Monge Neria, Professors Julie Renner, Christine Duval, and Burcu Gurkan and Great Lakes Energy Institute lead Grant Goodrich—for the effort, which she believes will position CWRU as an industry leader in separation science research. She also noted the support of collaborator Dan Park at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“We’re all going at this from different angles,” Kisley said. “I know that I say this a lot, but this project truly is standing on the shoulders of giants.”