Reaction-Diffusion Coupling Enables Efficient Recovery of Critical Materials from Permanent Magnet and Battery Feedstocks

Coupling ion transport, nucleation, and growth offers a new paradigm for efficiently and selectively separating critical elements from liquid feedstocks. Inspired by the classic Liesegang experiment, this approach selectively and sequentially extracts competing metal ions according to a delicate interplay between their diffusion and precipitation kinetics. We present a proof-of-concept for recovering pure neodymium from recycled permanent magnets and pure manganese from battery electrodes. Our overarching vision is to achieve the energy- and atom-efficient separation of rare earth elements, transition metals, and other critical elements from unconventional domestic feedstocks using non-thermal, reactive separations without costly membranes, ligands, toxic solvents, or other specialty chemicals.