Separation of Yttrium from Lanthanoid Elements by Centrifugal Partition Chromatography

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Abstract
Separation of yttrium(III) and heavy lanthanoid elements(III) was performed by centrifugal partition chromatography (CPC) employing different types of stationary phase components, 2-ethylhexyl phosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester (EHEHPA) and Versatic 10 (VA10). The retention volume (VR) in CPC provided with the EHEHPA stationary phase increased with the atomic number of lanthanoid elements, and Y was eluted between Ho and Er. Yttrium can be completely separated from most of lanthanoids other than Dy, Ho and Er. As for the VA10 stationary phase, Y was separated from Dy, Ho and Er. Isolation of Y from a lanthanoid mixture was accomplished by means of two steps of CPC fractionation through the EHEHPA stationary phase, followed by treatment through the VA10 stationary phase; the content of each lanthanoid element in the final Y fraction was reduced to less than 0.3% against the content of Y.