Influence of lactic acid on the solvent extraction separation of Sm(III) and Co(II) from chloride medium using DEHPA

ABSTRACT

A novel process for the separation of Sm (III) and Co (II) from chloride medium using lactic acid in the aqueous feed employing Di-2-ethylhexyl phosphoric acid (DEHPA) in petrofin as organic phase solvent has been developed. Complete separation has been accomplished with 1 M HLac and 0.1 M DEHPA in the pH range 1–3 and using 2.2 M HLac at pH 3 with 0.2 M DEHPA. Sm (III) could be entirely stripped off the loaded organic solvent by means of 1.2 M HCl and HNO₃. The extraction process is heat releasing for Sm (III) and heat absorbing for Co (II).

KEYWORDS:

• Separation
• Sm (III)
• Co (II)
• chloride medium

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan deemed to be University for kind cooperation to complete this work. Swagatika Satpathy is thankful to DST, govt. of India for the DST-INSPIRE fellowship.