TY - GEN A1 - Adam, Christian T1 - Challenges in analysing rare earth elements in different waste matrices to determine recovery potentials N2 - The rare earth elements (REEs) are a group of 17 elements from the lanthanide series including scandium and yttrium that share similar physical and chemical properties. They are progressively important for transition to a green, low-carbon economy due to their vital role in electric cars, permanent magnets, fluorescent lamps, rechargeable NiMH batteries, catalysts and other applications. In reality, the term “rare” is misleading as these elements are widely present in the earth’s crust. However, even if not rare, REEs have a high supply risk due to the geopolitical situation e.g. resulting from limited Chinese exports. This, along with their importance in various clean and high-tech applications, has led the EU and the U.S. to label certain REEs, especially europium, terbium and yttrium as critical elements. Recycling is often considered as one of the ways to reduce REEs criticality, especially the import dependency. A recycling strategy for REE requires reliable analytical data of different types of waste streams. The REE bearing waste matrices can be completely different depending on its origin. Digestion methods prior to ICP-OES / -MS analysis must be optimized for the different matrices to guarantee reliable results. We present two examples of different REE bearing waste streams - fluorescence lamp shredder waste and red mud - and show how the analytical procedures were optimized. T2 - ERES 2017: 2nd European Rare Earth Resources Conference CY - Santorini, Greece DA - 28.05.2017 KW - Rare earth elements KW - Digestion methods KW - Waste materials PY - 2017 UR - https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bam/frontdoor/index/index/docId/43305 AN - OPUS4-43305 AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany