Search

The present study is conducted for developing separation of some elements of nuclear interest from zirconium-concentrate explored from Egyptian zircon mineral, using certain cationic exchangers. The main results revealed that Amberlite IR-120 is more efficient than Chelex-100 for separating La and Zr in 0.01 mol. L−1 (various acid, carbonate) from single or binary solution with separation factor (SF) of ∼2.1 × 103 (HCl) > 239 (HNO3) >56 (K2CO3) > 17.5 (HClO4). Separation of La and Zr was largely influenced by acid concentration, equilibration period, and temperature. Thermodynamically, values of Δ G o , Δ H o and Δ S o indicated that retention of the metal ions is disordered and endothermic nature. In a column application, Zr is separately eluted without La; with recoveries reached to 98% for Zr and 50% to 67% for La. The larger negativity of free energy of hydration of Zr (−6950 KJ/mol) that of La (−3418 KJ/mol) confirm that Zr exists as a non-sorptive species; meanwhile La forms adsorptive species onto the column bed resin. As a result, this study can be extended in the future to help exploration of the strategic elements (e.g., Zr, Hf, lanthanides) from their minerals in Egypt. Moreover, developed procedure by Amberlite IR-120 resin can be considered as highly efficient and promising for separation and purification of tri-valence lanthanides (e.g., La3+) and/or actinides (e.g., Am3+) from tetra-valence metal ions such as Zr4+ and Hf4+ or their homologous as Ce4+, Th4+ and Np4+. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]