Extraction and separation of yttrium from other rare earths in chloride medium by phosphorylcarboxylic acids

Abstract Two phosphorylcarboxylic acids, 3-((bis(2-ethylhexyloxy))phosphoryl)propanoic acid (PPA) and 3-((bis(2-ethylhexyloxy))phosphoryl)-3-phenylpropanoic acid (PPPA), were synthesized for separating yttrium from other rare earths in the chloride feed of ion-adsorption type rare earth concentrate. The effect of the factors such as pH1/2, temperature, saponification degree and phase modifiers was investigated. The separation efficiencies of PPA and PPPA are obviously better than the typical extractants such as sec-octylphenoxy acetic acid (CA-12) and naphthenic acid (NA). The extraction process of rare earths by PPA and PPPA is a cation exchanging reaction, which is similar to those of CA-12 and NA. The loaded rare earths in both PPA and PPPA systems can be effectively back-extracted by 0.5 mol/L HCl or higher concentration. A cascade extraction process for separating yttrium from other rare earths was developed using PPPA as the extractant. The yttrium product with the purity of 97.20 wt% was obtained by 35 stages of extraction and 12 stages of scrubbing.