A team of researchers at Penn State University has unveiled a plant-based technology that could transform how the world recovers rare earth elements.
Rare materials power everything from smartphones to electric vehicles and advanced defense systems.
The study has been recently published in Advanced Functional Materials. It describes a novel, environmentally friendly method for isolating dysprosium, one of the most sought-after heavy rare-earth elements.
By modifying cellulose, a natural compound found in plant cell walls, the researchers developed a nanomaterial capable of selectively separating dysprosium from other similar metals.
The finding could help address global supply challenges while reducing the environmental footprint of rare earth extraction.
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Why Dysprosium Matters ?
Rare earth elements comprise 17 metallic elements essential to modern technology. Among them, dysprosium plays a crucial role in semiconductors, electric motors, wind turbine generators, and even nuclear control systems, where it helps stabilize control rods under extreme heat.
Yet separating dysprosium from other rare earth metals is notoriously difficult. Many of these elements share nearly identical chemical properties, making traditional separation processes complex, expensive, and environmentally taxing.
“As technology advances, manufacturers will need more and more dysprosium. Some forecasts estimate the demand for this material may surge over 2,500% in the next 25 years,” says Amir Sheikhi, associate professor of chemical engineering at Penn State and principal investigator of the study. “Having a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to recover this material will strategically help the U.S. stay competitive with countries like China.”
China currently dominates global rare earth processing, making alternative recovery methods a strategic priority for US industry and policymakers.
Commercial approaches to separating rare earth elements typically rely on solvent extraction. It is a process that uses chemical solvents to dissolve and isolate metals from ores or electronic waste. These operations often require large facilities filled with chemical reagents and machinery.
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“Separating rare earth elements from one another has been extremely difficult, due to the metals’ very similar chemical structures,” Sheikhi explains. “We have been looking for a reliable way to separate heavy elements like dysprosium from lighter elements like neodymium, while avoiding the negative environmental side effects that come from current separation approaches.”
Solvent-based extraction not only consumes significant energy but also generates chemical waste, raising environmental concerns.
Nature Answers
Seeking a cleaner alternative, the Penn State team focused on cellulose, an abundant, renewable material found in plant cell walls. Cellulose is already widely used in paper, textiles, and biodegradable materials, but its potential for advanced mineral recovery remains largely untapped.
The researchers engineered cellulose at the nanoscale, creating crystalline particles roughly 100 nanometers long, about 1,000 times thinner than a human hair. These particles are known as anionic hairy cellulose nanocrystals (AHCNC). These particles have tiny chain-like structures extending from their ends.
When introduced into a water-based solution containing both neodymium and dysprosium, the nanocellulose acted like a selective filter. Through a process called adsorption, where a surface captures dissolved ions, the material binds specifically to dysprosium while leaving neodymium largely untouched.
“This is, to my knowledge, the first example of a cellulose-based adsorbent that can selectively filter between heavy and light rare earth elements,” Sheikhi says. “On top of that, our process is very straightforward and efficient. We just add our nanocellulose to a solution and separate the metals.”
Initially, the researchers believed the key to selective separation would lie in altering the functional groups, the sets of atoms that influence how molecules interact chemically.
But further analysis revealed something unexpected.
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“After comparing this behavior side-by-side with other cellulose-based platforms, we determined it’s not just the functional group type of the material that facilitates this selectivity,” Sheikhi explains. “It’s the structure of the material itself and the position of the functional groups, which showcase the unique properties of these hairy nanostructures.”
In other words, the nanocellulose’s physical architecture, specifically the positioning of its molecular hairs, plays a critical role in targeting dysprosium ions.
The finding opens new possibilities for designing bio-based materials that can isolate specific elements with high precision.
This is not the team’s first venture into rare earth recovery. In earlier research, Sheikhi and colleagues successfully used cellulose-based compounds to recover neodymium from electronic waste such as recycled computer circuit boards. Neodymium is a light rare-earth element widely used in high-strength magnets.
However, isolating heavy rare earth elements like dysprosium posed a greater challenge due to subtle chemical differences.
The new study shows that cellulose-based nanotechnology can bridge that gap.
While the research remains at the laboratory stage, the team believes the process has strong potential for industrial scaling. Because the method relies on water-based solutions rather than harsh chemical solvents, it could significantly reduce environmental impact.
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With further development, the technology may provide a commercially viable path for recycling rare earth elements from electronic waste or mining byproducts.
The researchers plan to expand their work by testing the nanocellulose platform on other critical minerals and rare earth elements. They also aim to optimize the material for industrial-scale manufacturing.
The research is supported by the US Department of Energy, the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and other funding partners. At a time when global supply chains face geopolitical and environmental pressures, sustainable resource recovery technologies are becoming important.
Federal research investment has historically fueled breakthroughs in energy, materials science, and manufacturing. Continued support could determine how quickly innovations such as plant-based rare-earth recovery move from the lab to the marketplace.
The Penn State team’s discovery offers a compelling glimpse into how bio-based nanotechnology might reshape critical mineral supply chains. By harnessing a material as common as plant cellulose, researchers may have found a cleaner, smarter way to secure the rare earth elements that power the modern world.
