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An Operationally Simple Method for Separating the Rare‐Earth Elements Neodymium and Dysprosium
Author(s) -
Bogart Justin A.,
Lippincott Connor A.,
Carroll Patrick J.,
Schelter Eric J.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201501659
Subject(s) - dysprosium , rare earth , metal , neodymium , lanthanide , chemistry , leaching (pedology) , inorganic chemistry , materials science , mineralogy , ion , organic chemistry , optics , physics , geology , laser , soil science , soil water
Rare‐earth metals are critical components of electronic materials and permanent magnets. Recycling of consumer materials is a promising new source of rare earths. To incentivize recycling there is a clear need for simple methods for targeted separations of mixtures of rare‐earth metal salts. Metal complexes of a tripodal nitroxide ligand [{(2‐ t BuNO)C 6 H 4 CH 2 } 3 N] 3− (TriNOx 3− ), feature a size‐sensitive aperture formed of its three η 2 ‐(N,O) ligand arms. Exposure of metal cations in the aperture induces a self‐associative equilibrium comprising [M(TriNOx)thf]/ [M(TriNOx)] 2 (M=rare‐earth metal). Differences in the equilibrium constants ( K eq ) for early and late metals enables simple Nd/Dy separations through leaching with a separation ratio S Nd/Dy =359.