The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 02, 1993
Filed:
May. 31, 1991
Lion Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An extractant for extracting rare earth metal ions comprises, for instance, di-(3-methylcyclohexyl)phosphoric acid, di-1-ethylpentylphosphoric acid, docosyl-(2 isopropyl-5-methylcyclohexyl) phosphoric acid, 2-ethylhexyl-2-methylcyclohexylphosphoric acid and/or 2-hexyloctyl-cyclohexylphosphoric acid or a combination of, for instance, dicyclohexylphosphoric acid and di-(2-heptylundecyl) phosphoric acid. A method for extracting rare earth metals comprises the step of bringing an acidic aqueous solution containing ions of rare earth metals into contact with an extraction medium containing an extractant exemplified above to transfer the rare earth metal ions to the extraction medium. The extractant not only exhibits high extractability for rare earth metal ions but also facilitates the back extraction of the rare earth metal ions therefrom. In particular, the extractant has a great difference between the extractabilities for light rare earth metals which are abundantly present in the crust of the earth and for medium and heavy rare earth metals and has an excellent power for mutual separation of these rare earth metals. Thus, the rare earth metal ions can be extracted and separated in high efficiency.