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Selective Sulfidation for Rare Earth Element Separation

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Rare Metal Technology 2022

Part of the book series: The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series ((MMMS))

Abstract

Rare earth metals and compounds are critical components of advanced materials for energy, structural alloys, and transportation. These low-tonnage elements are sourced together as by- and co-products, and presently require complete hydrometallurgical dissolution followed by liquid–liquid separation for their isolation and production. There is great interest in developing alternatives to those hydrometallurgical processes in order to limit the environmental impact of rare earth element supply. Herein, we present selective sulfidation as a novel, high-temperature alternative to facilitate physical separation of rare earth by- and co-product elements. We explore the thermodynamics of rare earth oxide sulfidation with elemental sulfur, and discuss the role of carbon in controlling sulfidation selectivity. We apply these findings to the demonstration of selective sulfidation for iron-rare earth and lanthanide-lanthanide separations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Hirotaka Higuchi for providing samples of scandium oxide. Part of this work was funded from the DOE-AMO-EERE Office under project DE-EE0008316.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Office 13-5095, Cambridge, MA, 02139-4307, USA

    Caspar Stinn (Allanore Research Group-Research Assistant)

  2. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Office 13-5066, Cambridge, MA, 02139-4307, USA

    Antoine Allanore (Associate Professor of Metallurgy)

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  1. Caspar Stinn
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Correspondence to Antoine Allanore .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Takanari Ouchi

  2. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Gisele Azimi

  3. KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden

    Kerstin Forsberg

  4. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Hojong Kim

  5. University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK, Canada

    Shafiq Alam

  6. IND LLC, South Jordan, UT, USA

    Neale R. Neelameggham

  7. University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria

    Alafara Abdullahi Baba

  8. University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Hong Peng

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Stinn, C., Allanore, A. (2022). Selective Sulfidation for Rare Earth Element Separation. In: Ouchi, T., et al. Rare Metal Technology 2022. The Minerals, Metals & Materials Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92662-5_25

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