文摘
Competitive complexation of solid lanthanide nitrates with tri-n-butyl phosphate (TBP) in n-hexane was studied by spectroscopic methods. For light lanthanides binary system (Nd–Pr), they complexed with TBP equally, leading to a low separation factor. However, distinct different behavior was observed for light-heavy lanthanides binary system (Nd–Ho). Heavy lanthanide Ho(NO3)3·6H2O complexed preferentially with TBP, resulting in a much higher separation factor. The separation factor was low during H2O stripping of lanthanides from their complexes in n-hexane, even thought, the tendency of stripping more light lanthanide was also observed.