Issue 47, 2020

A green separation process of Ag via a Ti4(embonate)6 cage

Abstract

From an environmental perspective, silver recovery through a green process is imperative. In this work, a green supramolecular separation process of Ag has been developed by using a highly charged anionic Ti4L6 (L = embonate) cage as the extractant. Such a Ti4L6 cage has unique selectivity toward [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions, because only linear [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions can be trapped into the windows of the Ti4L6 cage, which is demonstrated by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. To further illustrate the efficiency and mechanism of the herein constructed silver separation method, three co-crystals of the Ti4L6 cage with various [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions were prepared and structurally characterized, annotating the stepwise recognition of [Ag(NH3)2]+ ions by the Ti4L6 extractant. However, it failed to trap larger tetrahedral [Zn(NH3)4]2+ and quadrilateral [Pb(NH3)4]2+ ions under the same reaction conditions, indicating that configuration matching contributes to the high selectivity of the above-mentioned silver separation procedure. More interestingly, Ag nanoparticles with high yield could be obtained by the reduction of the [Ag(NH3)2]&Ti4L6 extracts with hydrazine hydrate (N2H4·H2O), and the Ti4L6 cages can be readily recycled through recrystallization. This discovery offers a green supramolecular procedure for silver recovery with coordination cages as efficient and recyclable extractants.

Graphical abstract: A green separation process of Ag via a Ti4(embonate)6 cage

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 9 2020
Accepted
02 11 2020
First published
03 11 2020

Dalton Trans., 2020,49, 17194-17199

A green separation process of Ag via a Ti4(embonate)6 cage

G. Chen, Y. He, F. Liang, L. Zhang and J. Zhang, Dalton Trans., 2020, 49, 17194 DOI: 10.1039/D0DT03214J

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements