Separation of Particles of Rare Earth Oxides by Dielectrophoresis

Abstract

A major challenge in chemical engineering is the separation and purification of materials, especially of rare earth compounds. It has been reported that a dielectrophoretic (DEP) apparatus can be used for separating rare earth oxides. The DEP capture of REOs on screen electrode was observed with microscope. The concentration of ROEs was determined using a nephelometer and ICP-OES before and after injection into the DEP apparatus. The results show that three types of REOs, La2O3, CeO2 and Dy2O3, generate nDEP in the DEP capture apparatus. There are two factors: voltage and suspension concentration, that affect the capture rate. The capture rate increases as voltage rises within certain limits. The capture rate also increases with increase in the original suspension concentration. Different REOs show marked differences in the DEP capture conditions. Consequently, factors such as voltage and flow rate can be controlled to achieve separation of different REOs.

Controlled growth and waste water treatment of light rare earth (La, Ce, Pr) oxides with 3D superstructures

“…Recently, nanoscience development has gone beyond the simple pursuit of single nanoparticles, and many efforts have been focused on the assembly of functional nanoscale building blocks, such as nanorods, nanowires or nanotubes, into an appropriate superstructure [1,2] . Once such building blocks can be rationally assembled into appropriate three-dimensional (3D) superstructures, they will offer new scientific opportunities for investigating the influence of size and dimensionality with respect to their collective optical, magnetic, and electronic properties and could provide the possibility to probe novel properties and applications resulting from the spatial orientation and arrangement of the nanocrystals [3][4][5][6][7] . To date, a wide variety of superstructures of inorganic materials, including metals, metal oxides, sulfides, hydrates, and other minerals, have been successfully prepared.…”