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Author: Subject: Recycle Rare Earths
DJF90
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[*] posted on 12-8-2012 at 00:28


I already provided a reference to the magnesium rare-earth nitrates up thread. I guess people were just too lazy to look up the reference so I guess I'll do the leg-work and provide the relevant pages.

In future it might be worth listening up and chasing these down for yourself. If you don't have access to these files then ask as required and I can provide them. Ignorance won't get you very far.

The added benefit of the Inorganic Syntheses series is (much like OrgSyn), the preparations are PEER REVIEWED.

Attachment: ISv2 p29-43.pdf (1.6MB)
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Attachment: ISv2 p44-51.pdf (827kB)
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Attachment: ISv2 p52-61.pdf (1.1MB)
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blogfast25
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[*] posted on 12-8-2012 at 12:29


Thanks DJF, but I cannot view these files: AR indicates there’s a ‘problem’.

Below, 1st crop, crap photo of the Nd2Mg3 double nitrate, a few gram:



The photo doesn’t really do it justice: crystals are typically a beautiful Nd lilac/violet and clear as you would expect a 24 hydrate to be.

More was synthesised this afternoon and both crops combined and are recrystallising now.

The trouble is drying them properly. After rinsing the first, still ice cold crop with a bit of iced water, I tried to get most of the water off with filter paper, then on a low setting hot plate but they melted immediately.

The next drop will be air dried at RT on filter paper then desiccated over CaCl2.

I’ll try a melting point reading after that (melting points for all the RE2Mg3 double nitrates are listed in the paper I linked to above.




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[*] posted on 12-8-2012 at 16:50


I have run the elemental analysis on slurry that i have and it comes out with the following result:

wt%

Nd 19.02, Pr 5.10, Fe 50.7, B 0.73, Dy 3.23, Tb 0.02, Al 0.51, Cu 0.1, Co 1.14, Ti 0.1, Ga 0.05.

i guess there is a problem because the numbers do not add up to 100....it is possible that the slurry was not treated for the removal of water or another lubricants that comes from cutting....

the tools are cutting only ndfeb magnets so therefore there is no traces of Sm in this slurry ......

how can i download Handbooks Patnaik Handbook inorganic chemicals 2003 ? (any help??)




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[*] posted on 12-8-2012 at 16:55


@ DJF90 : You have uploaded an empty pdf's...can you provide a references again please!

[Edited on 13-8-2012 by recycle]




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[*] posted on 13-8-2012 at 09:12


Quote: Originally posted by recycle  

wt%

Nd 19.02, Pr 5.10, Fe 50.7, B 0.73, Dy 3.23, Tb 0.02, Al 0.51, Cu 0.1, Co 1.14, Ti 0.1, Ga 0.05.



So your main man is Nd. I say dissolve sludge in 37 % HCl, filter off insolubles and saturate the filtrate with K2SO4. Allow to stand overnight for maximum yield as insoluble RE/K double sulphates precipitate.

Filter and wash filter cake with acidified sat. K2SO4. Then convert RE/K double salts with strong ammonia to RE(OH)3 + soluble K sulphate and separate by filtration.

[Edited on 13-8-2012 by blogfast25]

[Edited on 13-8-2012 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 13-8-2012 at 17:33


blogfast25 : Thanks for nice steps :) to recover Nd.... (i guess that Pr will dissolve too ??), but HOW ABOUT Dy.....

no my main elements are Nd, Pr and Dy and i want to isolate them in a mixture....ignoring Dy and Pr is no go .....

i am aware of this paper; Journal of Alloys and Compounds; vol. 408 - 412; (2006); p. 1382 - 1385, where;

The hydrothermal treatment of used Nd-Fe-B sintered permanent magnet was investigated in order to recover the rare- earth resources efficiently. Commercially available Ni-coated Nd2Fe14B sintered magnet was hydrothermally treated under the op- timum conditions at 110 .deg.C for 6 h in the mixed aqueous solution of hydrochloric acid (3.0 mol/dm3) and oxalic acid (0.2 mol/ dm3). As a result, more than 99percent of Nd metal contained in the magnet was collected as solid precipitate of Nd 2(C2O4)3*xH2O with the purity as high as 99.8percent.

The challenge is to collected all the above elements out from oxidized slurry in a particular mixture




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[*] posted on 14-8-2012 at 04:26


@ recycle:

Firstly, bugger that paper: 3 M HCl (roughly 10 w%) is nothing, no wonder it takes six f*cking hours, might as well try lemon juice! 37 w% HCl is about 12 M (mol/L), about 4 times faster. Also having oxalic acid in there risks precipitating other oxalates (most ionic oxalates are highly insoluble), such as Fe. Their method is useless rubbish. And their claim of purity only works if the magnets contain no other REs, as the ‘method’ [cough!] does not distinguish between one and the next RE.

Hot 12 M HCl however WILL dissolve the LOT, in a matter of perhaps 2 hours tops, including ALL REs and even that bit of Ti. Insoluble residue will be mainly a small amount of B (from NdFeB). Then precipitate all REs as potassium double sulphates, convert to mixed hydroxides. Trust me I’M NOT IGNORING Pr, Dy: their oxides will be mixed in with the Nd (and any other RE that might be lurking there!) oxide.

Separating the REs effectively is such a specialist job I wouldn’t even begin to think about it. This mixed oxide will have commercial value, though, make no question about it…


[Edited on 14-8-2012 by blogfast25]

[Edited on 14-8-2012 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 14-8-2012 at 12:31


No, it works. I've separated neodymium from iron using the oxalate method because iron formed a trioxalatoferro complex when enough oxalic acid was added, thus staying in solution while the rare earth oxides precipitated out.
As for separating Praseodymium and Neodymium, I believe it was discussed extensively in 'the trouble with neodymium', but I don't recall if they reached any solid conclusion.




Elements Collected:52/87
Latest Acquired: Cl
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[*] posted on 15-8-2012 at 05:19


Quote: Originally posted by elementcollector1  
No, it works. I've separated neodymium from iron using the oxalate method because iron formed a trioxalatoferro complex [note: trisoxalato ferric, not ferro, BF] when enough oxalic acid was added, thus staying in solution while the rare earth oxides [oxalates, not oxides, BF] precipitated out.
As for separating Praseodymium and Neodymium, I believe it was discussed extensively in 'the trouble with neodymium', but I don't recall if they reached any solid conclusion.


Not only is the amount of oxalic acid discussed in that paper ridiculously small, there is also no mention of oxidising the Fe2+ to Fe3+, needed for the separation based on trisoxalate ferric complex. Trust me, it was me who introduced that method on 'The trouble with neodymium'.

It was also me who thought I'd found some praseodymium in magnet Nd but the whole thing ended up inconclusive.

[Edited on 15-8-2012 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 15-8-2012 at 16:49


@ blogfast25

Look depends on the year when the magnet was manufactured. initially magnets did not have any Pr inside unless they were made for specific applications. recently (several years ago) they have started to put some Pr in magnets in order to reduce the price.

Especially if the magnet was from hard disk drive it will be difficult to find inside any Pr. I hope this helps to explain you why there was no Pr in your magnet.




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[*] posted on 18-8-2012 at 06:43


Hmmm... the spot FOB for praseodymium appears slightly higher than for neodymium. No great savings there. Small amounts of Pr don't affect NdFeB performance it would seem. That would be a motive to use contaminated Nd. I'm guessing here.

Also I didn't say there wasn't any Pr in my magnets (back then): I said it was inconclusive. W/o XRF it's really hard to detect small amounts of one RE in the matrix of another.

[Edited on 18-8-2012 by blogfast25]




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[*] posted on 18-8-2012 at 09:52


Quote: Originally posted by blogfast25  
Small amounts of Pr don't affect NdFeB performance it would seem. That would be a motive to use contaminated Nd. I'm guessing here.
I would guess that it's not so much contamination as a mixed-element ore body that's being exploited, and that the refiner is spending less money on a complete RE separation process. Cheaper cost of goods sold, adequate performance for a certain class of product; sounds like a win overall.
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[*] posted on 19-8-2012 at 16:12


Sorry about that, been busy all week. It appears as if CutePDF was having a spazwank, so I've split the file using another program. Find the two segments attached (and in working order!)

Attachment: Segment 001 of ISv2 rare earths.pdf (1.3MB)
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Attachment: Segment 002 of ISv2 rare earths.pdf (1.3MB)
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[*] posted on 20-8-2012 at 07:32


Thanks DJF, these work fine.



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