Yttrium separation

Fig. 2. Distribution of REE ia the HDEHP—perchlorate system. The lanthanide—yttrium separation factor, E(Ln/Y), is plotted as a function of lanthanide...

This relation applies when the time interval between yttrium separation and counting is the same for the actual sample and the accompanying 90Sr standard solution. If the time interval of the two differs by more than 15 min, then a correction must be made for the different ingrowth fractions of 90Y and the different counting efficiencies of 90Sr and 90Y. 

Alternative 1 consists of measuring the strontium precipitate as soon as possible (within a few hours) after yttrium separation, and repeating the measurement after 2-4 weeks. As shown by the equations in Table 6.5, the first value consists of beta particles from Sr and °Sr, with a small contribution from the recently separated °Y. The latter is the calculable fraction Disoyrelative to the °Sr beta-particle activity. The second value consists of the same contributors, except that the Sr beta-particle emission rate has decreased according to its known half-life, while the °Y emission rate has increased to become almost the same as that for °Sr,... 

Reference has been made already to the existence of a set of inner transition elements, following lanthanum, in which the quantum level being filled is neither the outer quantum level nor the penultimate level, but the next inner. These elements, together with yttrium (a transition metal), were called the rare earths , since they occurred in uncommon mixtures of what were believed to be earths or oxides. With the recognition of their special structure, the elements from lanthanum to lutetium were re-named the lanthanons or lanthanides. They resemble one another very closely, so much so that their separation presented a major problem, since all their compounds are very much alike. They exhibit oxidation state -i-3 and show in this state predominantly ionic characteristics—the ions. 

The heavy mineral sand concentrates are scmbbed to remove any surface coatings, dried, and separated into magnetic and nonmagnetic fractions (see Separation, magnetic). Each of these fractions is further spHt into conducting and nonconducting fractions in an electrostatic separator to yield individual concentrates of ilmenite, leucoxene, monazite, mtile, xenotime, and zircon. Commercially pure zircon sand typically contains 64% zirconium oxide, 34% siUcon oxide, 1.2% hafnium oxide, and 0.8% other oxides including aluminum, iron, titanium, yttrium, lanthanides, uranium, thorium, phosphoms, scandium, and calcium. 

Fra.ctiona.1 Precipituition. A preliminary enrichment of certain lanthanides can be carried out by selective precipitation of the hydroxides or double salts. The lighter lanthanides (La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm) do not easily form soluble double sulfates, whereas those of the heavier lanthanides (Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu) and yttrium are soluble. Generally, the use of this method has been confined to cmde separation of the rare-earth mixture into three groups light, medium, and heavy. 

In 1794 the Finnish chemist J. Gadolin, while examining a mineral that had recently been discovered in a quarry at Ytterby, near Stockholm, isolated what he thought was a new oxide (or earth ) which A. G. Ekeberg in 1797 named yttria. In fact it was a mixture of a number of metal oxides from which yttrium oxide was separated by C. G. Mosander in 1843. This is actually part of the fascinating story of the rare earths to which we shall return in Chapter 30. The first sample of yttrium metal, albeit very impure, was obtained by F. Wohler in 1828 by the reduction of the trichloride by potassium. 

Yttrium and lanthanum are both obtained from lanthanide minerals and the method of extraction depends on the particular mineral involved. Digestions with hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, or caustic soda are all used to extract the mixture of metal salts. Prior to the Second World War the separation of these mixtures was effected by fractional crystallizations, sometimes numbered in their thousands. However, during the period 1940-45 the main interest in separating these elements was in order to purify and characterize them more fully. The realization that they are also major constituents of the products of nuclear fission effected a dramatic sharpening of interest in the USA. As a result, ion-exchange techniques were developed and, together with selective complexation and solvent extraction, these have now completely supplanted the older methods of separation (p. 1228). In cases where the free metals are required, reduction of the trifluorides with metallic calcium can be used. 

However, solubility, depending as it does on the rather small difference between solvation energy and lattice energy (both large quantities which themselves increase as cation size decreases) and on entropy effects, cannot be simply related to cation radius. No consistent trends are apparent in aqueous, or for that matter nonaqueous, solutions but an empirical distinction can often be made between the lighter cerium lanthanides and the heavier yttrium lanthanides. Thus oxalates, double sulfates and double nitrates of the former are rather less soluble and basic nitrates more soluble than those of the latter. The differences are by no means sharp, but classical separation procedures depended on them. 

A circular TLC spectrophotometric method for the determination of lanthanum and yttrium at concentration level of 0.01 to 1.0% in molybdenum-based alloys has also been developed. It involves the separation of lanthanum and yttrium on cellulose layers impregnated with 0.2-Mtrioctylamine using aqueous HCl as developer, extraction from sorbent layer, and determination by spectrophotometry [69]. 

Siriwardane, R.V., J.A. Poston, E.P Fisher, T.H. Lee, S.E. Dorris, and U. Balachandran, Characterization of ceramic-metal composite hydrogen separation membranes consisting of barium oxide, cerium oxide, yttrium oxide, and palladium, Appl. Surf. Sci., 217, 43-49, 2003. 

Erbium - the atomic number is 68 and the chemical symbol is Er. The name derives from the Swedish town of Ytterby (about 3 miles from Stockholm), where the ore gadolinite (in which it was found) was first mined. It was discovered by the Swedish surgeon and chemist Carl-Gustav Mosander in 1843 in an yttrium sample. He separated the yttriiom into yttrium, a rose colored salt... 

The leach liquor is first treated with a DEHPA solution to extract the heavy lanthanides, leaving the light elements in the raffinate. The loaded reagent is then stripped first with l.Smoldm nitric acid to remove the elements from neodymium to terbium, followed by 6moldm acid to separate yttrium and remaining heavy elements. Ytterbium and lutetium are only partially removed hence, a final strip with stronger acid, as mentioned earlier, or with 10% alkali is required before organic phase recycle. The main product from this flow sheet was yttrium, and the yttrium nitrate product was further extracted with a quaternary amine to produce a 99.999% product. 

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