Rhenium recovery from roasting leachate of molybdenum concentrate by N-methylimidazole functionalized anion exchange resin

Developing the recovery technology of rhenium under the background of high molybdenum is of great significance to the recovery of rhenium resources in the leaching solution of molybdenum concentrate roasting. Herein, the resin LSL-N with adsorption capacity for rhenium and molybdenum was synthesized with N -methylimidazole as the functional group. The results of the batch adsorption test show that LSL-N resin has a good adsorption capacity for Re(VII) and Mo(VI), and the saturated adsorption capacity is 342.26 mg/g and 185.06 mg/g. The existing form of molybdenum (MO 4 2– ) in the solution was calculated by PHREEQC. The shorter hydrogen bond distance of MO 4 2– @2LSL-N indicates that LSL-N resin has a stronger adsorption capacity for Mo(VI) when the active sites are sufficient, which is revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculation. LSL-N resin can enrich Re(VII) and Mo(VI) in the eluent at the same time, with the maximum enrichment factors of 134.8 and 38.6. Re(VII) and Mo(VI) can be desorbed step by step with different desorbents, and molybdenum can be recovered as well as rhenium.