Effects of contaminant metal ions on precipitation recovery of rare earth elements using oxalic acid

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dc.contributor.authorZhang, Wencaien
dc.contributor.authorNoble, Aaronen
dc.contributor.authorJi, Binen
dc.contributor.authorLi, Qien
dc.date.accessioned2022-02-07T01:44:13Zen
dc.date.available2022-02-07T01:44:13Zen
dc.date.issued2022-01-01en
dc.date.updated2022-02-07T01:44:09Zen
dc.description.abstractSolution equilibrium calculations were performed in this study to understand the impact of contaminant metal ions on the precipitation efficiency of selected rare earth elements (Ce3+, Nd3+, and Y3+) using oxalic acid as a precipitant. Trivalent metal ions, Al3+ and Fe3+, were found to considerably affect the precipitation efficiency of REEs. When Al3+ and Fe3+ concentrations were increased by 1 × 10−4 mol/L, in order to achieve an acceptable cerium recovery of 93% from solutions containing 1 × 10−4 mol/L Ce3+, oxalate dosage needed to increase by 1.2 × 10−4 and 1.68 × 10−4 mol/L, respectively. Such great impacts on the required oxalate dosage were also observed for Nd3+ and Y3+, which indicates that oxalic acid consumption and cost will be largely increased when the trivalent metal ions exist in REE-concentrated solutions. Effects of the divalent metal ions on the oxalate dosage is minimal. Furthermore, solution equilibrium calculation results showed that the precipitation of Fe3+ and Ca2+ (e.g., hematite and Ca(C2O4)∙H2O(s)) likely occurs during the oxalate precipitation of REEs at relatively high pH (e.g., pH 2.5), which will reduce rare earth oxalate product purity. In addition to the metal ions, anionic species, especially SO42−, were also found to negatively affect the precipitation recovery of REEs. For example, when 0.1 mol/L SO42− occurs in a solution containing 1 × 10−4 mol/L Ce3+ and 4 × 10−4 mol/L oxalate, the pH needed to be elevated from 2.0 to 3.3 to achieve the acceptable recovery. Overall, findings from this study provide guidance for the obtainment of high-purity rare earth products from solutions containing a considerable amount of contaminant metal ions by means of oxalic acid precipitation.en
dc.description.versionAccepted versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.jre.2020.11.008en
dc.identifier.issn1002-0721en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10919/108182en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.rightsIn Copyrighten
dc.rights.urihttp://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/en
dc.subjectMaterialsen
dc.subject0914 Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgyen
dc.titleEffects of contaminant metal ions on precipitation recovery of rare earth elements using oxalic aciden
dc.title.serialJournal of Rare Earthsen
dc.typeArticle - Refereeden
dc.type.dcmitypeTexten
dc.type.otherJournal Articleen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Techen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Engineeringen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Engineering/Mining and Minerals Engineeringen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/All T&R Facultyen
pubs.organisational-group/Virginia Tech/Engineering/COE T&R Facultyen

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