Separation of Cesium and Rubidium from Solution with High Concentrations of Potassium and Sodium

Separations

article

Junjie Xie¹  Kang Li¹  Zhuonan Shi¹  Changli Min¹  Shina Li²  Zichen Yin¹  Ruixin Ma¹ 

[1] School of Metallurgical and Ecological Engineering, University of Science and Technology Beijing;Tianjin Research Institute of Water Transport Engineering, Ministry of Transport;Beijing Key Laboratory of Special Melting and Preparation of High-End Metal Materials

关键词: t-BAMBP;    rubidium;    cesium;    potassium;    extraction complex;   

DOI  :  10.3390/separations10010042

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Solvent extraction with 4-tert-butyl-2-(α-methylbenzyl) phenol (t-BAMBP) is an effective method for the separation and purification of rubidium and cesium. A solution containing a high K+ concentration (exceeding 80 g/L), which was ultra-salty, with about 200 g/L alkali metal ions, was used to extract Rb+ and Cs+. The effects of the process parameters on the separation of cesium and rubidium were systematically studied. The optimum conditions were as follows: NaOH concentration of 0.5 mol/L, t-BAMBP concentration of 1 mol/L (in sulfonated kerosene), organic/aqueous volume ratio (O/A ratio) of 3:1, and contact time of 1 min. The extraction rates of cesium and rubidium were 99.81 and 98.09%, respectively, and 19.31% of potassium was co-extracted in the organic phase after five-stage countercurrent extraction. About 99.32% of K+99%) could be recovered by two-stage countercurrent stripping at an O/A ratio of 3:1 for 2 min. A solid compound was found and collected from the organic phase during multi-stage solvent extraction. Its composition and structure were determined by XRD, infrared Fourier-transform, and ICP-MS.

【 授权许可】

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