Report of KU-UNIVIE Joint Grant Program
Section 1
Project title:
Project coordinator (KU)
Name
Position
Faculty, department
Project coordinator (UNIVIE)
Name
Position
Faculty, department
Period of project
Project location

For events*1(e.g. workshops,seminars, symposia)
Approx.
number ofparticipants

For other exchange
activities (such as
researcher visits and onlinemeetings) *2

If applicable: URL at which
project outcomes can be viewed(e.g. workshop
notifications/programs/reports,
evidence of academic papers
published or otherwise madeavailable, etc.)
If available: Photographs withcaptions*1*2

Powdered hierarchically-porous silica monoliths for critical materials
recovery from non-traditional feedstocks
Kazuki Nakanishi
Program-Specific Professor
Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences
Freddy Kleitz
University Professor
Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Functional Materials and Catalysis
From: July 2023
To: March 2024
KU: 

UNIVIE: 

Other:[KU] Faculty members: 1Students:[UNIVIE] Faculty members: 5 Students:
Other institutions:25

Others:Others: 2*Please attach a participant list if possible. (the list will NOT be publicized)
5 [UNIVIE] Faculty (Profs) were F. Kleitz, K. Hultzsch, R. Woodward, J. M. Chin, andM. Reithofer[KU] Faculty members: 2Students: 5[UNIVIE] Faculty members: 1 (Kleitz) Students:
Other institutions:

Others: 2
Others: 1 (Florek)

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acssuschemeng.3c04672

Please submit digital files (such as JPEG or GIF files) of the photographs
used in your report as attachments. The size of each image should beapprox. 4MB, so that it can be used for printed materials. Please ensurethat none of the photographs submitted will cause any issues relating toportrait rights.

Please enter the number of participants for each event.
Please count each individual participant once only, even if they participate multiple times.

Section 2
Summary of the project (approx. 200 words)
Critical Materials (CMs) are a group of resources, mostly metals, that have been deemed important to themodern economy, but which face current or potential supply limitations, often for political reasons. The
rare earth elements (REEs) and the platinum group metals (PGMs) are examples of raw materials given
the CM label in Europe, Japan, and North America. Scientists at Kyoto University and University of
Vienna fostered their joint collaboration to transfer knowledge and experience related to the developmentof hierarchically-porous silica monoliths for CM recovery. These monoliths offer great advantages for
CM extraction and purification, most notably their high surface area for adsorption and the possibility ofrapid mass transfer through the sorbent in a continuous-flow system. For the project, expertise andlaboratory experience were shared between KU (experts in powdered monolith synthesis) and UNIVIE(experts in ligand synthesis and grafting, and design of CM extraction systems) to produce advanced
hierarchical macroporous-mesoporous silica-based sorbents. Monoliths of several different types and sizes
were synthesized according to established KU methods. Especially, we have developped powderedhierarchically-porous silica monoliths as a practical CM recovery system, as a proof-of-principle forextraction from recycled/secondary feedstocks, in an effort to progress the technique closer to theindustrial scale. Unfunctionalized monolith powders were confirmed to be well-suited for scandium (Sc)extraction in both batch and continuous-flow column systems, and they demonstrate excellent potential
for Sc recovery over a range of conditions, while ligand-functionalized systems were tested for extractionof lanthanides and noble metals (PGMs). Joint publications between the two groups have been produced,
facilitating innovation and further collaboration. Efforts to obtain joint funding for further collaborative
research are pursued.