(401ad) Engineering Composite Membranes for Selective Ion Transport from Deep Eutectic Solvent Systems in E-Waste Recycling

The growing demand for critical metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel has made e-waste a valuable secondary resource. However, current recovery methods are energy-intensive and environmentally burdensome, highlighting the need for modular, selective, and sustainable alternatives. This project investigates a hybrid separation platform that combines deep eutectic solvents (DES) with engineered polymeric membranes to enable the selective recovery of critical metals such as lithium, cobalt, and nickel from complex electronic-waste sources. In this system, DES is used to extract and dissolve metal ions from solid waste feedstocks, while a tailored polymer membrane serves as a barrier to DES components, allowing metal ions to permeate through. Membranes were fabricated from polybenzimidazole (PBI) using controlled phase inversion and various coagulation bath compositions. Results suggest that bath composition influences membrane porosity and transport behavior, which in turn impact ion selectively. This approach functions as a membrane-assisted molecular gate, providing a modular route for solvent reuse and critical metal separation within circular resource recovery systems, supporting broader clean energy and sustainability goals.