The present work is devoted toward the development of a highly
efficient, low cost, selective and sensitive technique for the detection,
removal and recovery of a popular rare earth element, i.e., gadolinium
[Gd]. Herein, the magnetic ordered mesoporous carbon (OMMC) is prepared
by a green synthesis approach and used as a core for the preparation
of imprinted-OMMC using Gd(III) as a template. The prepared material
has been used as a coating sorbent for solid phase microextraction
(SPME) fiber as well as filled in a small sized micropipette tip to
perform the microsolid phase extraction (μ-SPE) based study.
The techniques have been explored for different purposes, i.e., preconcentration
and trace level detection of Gd(III) has been done by SPME; however,
μ-SPE is used for removal as well as recycling of Gd(III) from
wastewater samples. The SPME fiber shows a higher preconcentration
factor 1400 for Gd(III) with a limit of detection = 2.34 ng L–1, whereas the μ-SPE cartridge shows a higher
adsorption capacity (30.2 μg g–1) and removal
efficiency (90%) toward Gd(III). Both the techniques have been successfully
applied to the preconcentration, detection and removal of Gd(III)
from pathological laboratory wastewater, drinking water, sewage sludge,
tap water, pond water, river water, human sera, fruits and vegetables
and soil and water samples collected from the local coal mines. In
addition, the μ-SPE cartridge was successfully applied for recycling
of Gd(III) (in solid form) from both pathological laboratory wastewater
and coal soil samples.