Efficient Metal Extraction from Dilute Solutions: A Review of Novel Selective Separation Methods and Their Applications

Notable increases in metal consumption and declining ore grades in recent decades have stressed the significance of dilute solutions as secondary sources of valuable metals. Moreover, environmental considerations and the imperative of sustainable development have further emphasized their treatment. Therefore, finding an efficient solution for separating metals from dilute solutions has attracted the attention of numerous researchers. This paper reviews the purification processes of dilute solutions and highlights key achievements of published research works. Although this study focuses on evaluating the efficiency of recently developed aqueous-phase purification methods, such as immobilized ligands, ionic liquids, and air-assisted solvent extraction, the application of conventional processes to treat these solutions, such as solvent extraction, ion exchange, membranes, chemical precipitation, and adsorption are also briefly outlined. To provide a comprehensive assessment, more than 200 research articles were reviewed, and their key findings are stated in this study. This research contributes to the advancement of knowledge of metal recovery from dilute solutions and sheds light on the dynamic evolution of this field.