Experiments on the magnetic enrichment of rare-earth metal ions in aqueous solutions in a microflow device

K Kolczyk-Siedlecka,X Yang,P Zabinski,G Mutschke,M Wojnicki

doi:10.1007/s41981-019-00039-8

K Kolczyk-Siedlecka, X Yang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41981-019-00039-8

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Abstract

An attempt is made to achieve a continuous enrichment of rare-earth metal ions from aqueous solutions in a microflow device by applying magnetic forcing. An aqueous solution containing holmium(III) ions is pumped through a small channel which was exposed to a strong inhomogeneous magnetic field. At the outflow, the near- and far-field parts of the flow are separated and analyzed using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The relative change of ion concentration is determined from the measured absorbance. Results are reported for three different types of flow cells at different flow rates and magnetic field strengths and for a cascaded application of cells. The change of concentration is found to be small, and no clear trend can currently be stated due to the error margin of the concentration measurement.

Highlights

High Gradient Magnetic Separation (HGMS) is arousing increasing interest as a technology that can replace or support currently applied methods of metal production thanks to its low costs, low energy consumption, easy application, Highlights The influence of a magnetic field gradient on the transport of Ho(III) ions in microflow cells was studied. The magnetic field gradient dependent on the orientation of the cell in the magnetic field was simulated
The mean difference in the concentration was calculated based on the absorbance at two peak wavelengths – 537 and 641 nm
The relative height of the surface pattern with respect to pipe/channel height amounts to 5% only in our case, whereas available data in literature typically refer to about 20–30%

Summary

Introduction

High Gradient Magnetic Separation (HGMS) is arousing increasing interest as a technology that can replace or support currently applied methods of metal production thanks to its low costs, low energy consumption, easy application, Highlights The influence of a magnetic field gradient on the transport of Ho(III) ions in microflow cells was studied. The magnetic field gradient dependent on the orientation of the cell in the magnetic field was simulated. The group of rare-earth elements (REEs) has aroused special interest in research works due to their wide application in modern technologies [18,19,20] and hindered production processes. The most difficult production stage is separation, because of their high chemical similarity.

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