New Polymeric Sorbents and Their Application in Trace Analysis of Technologically Critical Elements

Dear Colleagues,

Due to current and future needs in technological and energy-related applications, several metals have been rated to the group of technology critical elements (TCEs) with the highest supply risk and economic importance in the EU. PGEs (platinum group elements) belong to to the group of technologically critical elements (TCEs) with the highest supply risk and economic importance. Among the TCEs, there are elements belonging to REEs (rare earth elements), PGEs (platinum group elements) and less studied elements, e.g., Nb, Ta, Ga, In, Ge, Te PGEs. The resources of TCEs are limited, therefore new technologies and processes for the more efficient separation of TCEs from secondary resources (e.g., waste materials) became necessary for economic reasons, as well as for the creation of the sustainable world. On the other hand, the growing industrial and medical use of TCEs, including PGEs, leads to their emission into different compartments of the environment. For several PGEs, their anthropogenic cycles in the environment, fate and impact on biota are still unknown due to limitations of used measurement techniques, such as insufficient detection limit and occurrence of various interferences, which are usually caused by their chemical similarity or not completely compensated background signal of matrix origin. The development of effective methods for the recovery as well as separation and preconcentration of PGEs from a variety of matrices could be supported by novel sorption materials. The aim of this Special Issue is to present the application of various solid sorbents for the analysis of PGEs and other TCEs in various environmental samples.

Researchers from all over the world are invited to contribute to this issue. In order to avoid the overlapping of topics, potential contributors/invited authors are kindly requested to submit a tentative article title and short description to the editor for pre-evaluation.

Prof. Dr. Beata Godlewska-Żyłkiewicz
Guest Editor