(19j) The Development Path of Redox-Mediated Electrochemical Separations

Separation processes are central to a range of industrial and societal applications, ranging from chemical manufacturing, mining processing and metal recycling, to wastewater treatment and environmental remediation. Redox-mediated electrochemical separations are a promising platform for ion-selective recovery, due to their energy-efficiency, modularity, and molecular selectivity. Controlling electron-transfer at electrochemical interfaces allows for reversible binding and release of target molecules. I will review the development path of redox-mediated separations over the past decade, starting from pioneering investigations in Alan’s lab in electrosorption and asymmetric electrochemical design to recent efforts in my own group on generalizing these platforms to continuous redox-mediated liquid-liquid extraction. I will demonstrate the rapidly expanding applicability of redox-mediated electrochemical separations to applications that include critical element recovery, dilute contaminant capture, homogeneous catalyst recycling, and even enantioselective separations.