The purification of the rare earth metals: II. Solid state electrotransport processing of Terbium

Abstract

Solid-state electrotransport processing has been demonstrated as a technique for purifying terbium. The results show that both oxygen and nitrogen migrate rapidly in the same direction as the electron flow. Although hydrogen contamination occurs on contact with air, terbium of better than 99.9 at.% has been prepared from commercially-available starting material. The preparation and characterisation of high-quality, single-crystal terbium specimens is also described.