Abstract
This chapter discusses separation chemistry. The separation chemistry and technology of rare earths have developed to a sufficiently high degree of sophistication that very high purity products can generally be produced when required. The chemistry of the rare earths is characterized by the similarity in the properties of the trivalent ions and their compounds. The chapter also explains solvent extraction. The conventional separation scheme is to leach the primary ore or concentrates and use the resulting solution containing the rare earth mixtures as the feedstock to the solvent extraction plant. Solvent extraction of the rare earth mixture in the leached solution separates them into bulk concentrates of light (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, etc.), middle (Sm, Eu, Gd, etc.) and heavy (Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Y) rare earths. A typical solvent extraction of rare earths in a HC1 medium is with di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid (HDEHP) in a kerosene diluent. This chapter discusses several of these extractants for their interesting chemistry and potential future development, in addition to the available industrial extractants and proposed for the separation of rare earths.
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