(647d) Virus-Based Selective and Sustainable Rare Earth Element Separation

Rare earth elements (REEs) hold a pivotal role in modern technology, national security, and clean energy. However, the global supply of REEs faces various challenges, mainly due to environmental impacts resulting from conventional separation processes. To tackle this issue, there has been considerable interest in utilizing biomaterial-based methods for REE separations due to their unique biological structures, offering selective separations, and sustainability. Here, we introduce an innovative approach to REE separation using a harmless virus, specifically M13 bacteriophage (phage). The M13 phage replicates itself by infecting E. coli, enabling potential mass production for real-world applications. We created lanthanide-binding phage (LBPh) through the genetic engineering of major coat pVIII proteins of the M13 phage with a naturally evolved REE-binding peptide from lanmodulin. The engineered LBPh exhibits exceptional adsorption capacity due to its numerous coat pVIII proteins (3300 copies/phage), serving as an effective biological template for REE separation. Through secondary structure and particle size analyses, we discovered that LBPh exhibits a preferential binding for heavy REEs over light REEs. Also, LBPh proves to be a stable REE extraction agent, maintaining selective REE separations over multiple cycles in aqueous solutions. This study underscores the significant potential of viral particles for developing environmentally friendly and sustainable REE separation system.