Extraction of rare earth metals by organometallic complexation using PC88A

Lesser availability, curtailed import/export, increasing demand, and environmental issues related to rare earth metals (REMs) have compelled researchers to investigate for their feasible recovery. Therefore, a solvent extraction process has been developed and validated to recover REMs from monazite leach liquor. At equilibrium pH ∼3.5, 99.4% La, 99.95% Ce, 99.97% Nd, and 99.05% Pr were extracted in 5 min using 5% PC88A at an O/A ratio of 1:1. High separation factors of 60.85, 72.17, and 98.33 were observed for Ce/La, Nd/La, and Pr/La, respectively, at equilibrium pH 2. Stripping of REMs loaded PC88A using 10% H2SO4 resulted in a pure solution of mixed REMs.