Detailed Description
The technical solutions of the present invention will be described clearly and completely below with reference to embodiments of the present invention, and it should be apparent that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.
The invention provides a method for separating rare earth elements from a rare earth solution, which comprises the steps of carrying out activation reaction on a compound with a structure shown in a formula (I) and the rare earth solution;
the structure of formula (I):
in the formula (I), R 1 And R 2 Independently selected from H or C1-C9 alkyl, n is a natural number of 1-20, x is a natural number of 1-5, and y is a natural number of 1-5. (R) 1 ) x Represents R 1 The substitution position on the benzene ring can be ortho-position, meta-position or para-position, the number of the substituent groups can be x, and the x ranges from 1 to 5 natural numbers.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the compound is activated by an inorganic base soap and then mixed with a rare earth solution for reaction.
In some embodiments of the present invention, the method for separating rare earth elements from a rare earth solution specifically comprises the following steps:
a) Mixing the compound with an organic solvent to obtain an extractant solution;
b) Mixing the extractant solution with an inorganic alkali solution, and saponifying to obtain a saponified extractant solution;
c) And mixing the saponified extractant solution with a rare earth solution for extraction, wherein yttrium is enriched in a water phase, and yttrium-poor rare earth is enriched in an organic phase.
In certain embodiments of the invention, R 1 And R 2 Are all H.
In certain embodiments of the present invention, n is selected from a natural number from 1 to 6.
In certain embodiments of the invention, n is 1 or 2 or 3.
In certain embodiments of the invention, R 1 And R 2 Independently selected from C1-C6 alkyl.
In certain embodiments of the invention, x is 1 or 2 and y is 1 or 2.
In certain embodiments of the present invention, the R 1 And R 2 Independently selected from methyl or n-octyl.
In certain embodiments of the present invention, the compound is selected from one of the structures represented by formulas (I-1) to (I-7);
in certain embodiments of the present invention, the organic solvent is selected from one or more of toluene, xylene, heptane, octane, methylene chloride, chloroform, and sulfonated kerosene.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the concentration of the extractant solution is from 0.5 to 1.0mol/L. In certain embodiments, the concentration of the extractant solution is 0.60mol/L.
Mixing a compound with an organic solvent to obtain an extractant solution, mixing the extractant solution with an inorganic alkali solution, and saponifying to obtain a saponified extractant solution.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the inorganic base solution is an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide. In certain embodiments of the present invention, the concentration of the inorganic base solution is 8 to 12mol/L. In certain embodiments, the concentration of the inorganic base solution is 10.8mol/L.
In some embodiments of the invention, the saponification is carried out at a temperature of 25-65 ℃ for a time of 0.5-2 hours. In certain embodiments, the temperature of the saponification is 65 ℃, 45 ℃, or 25 ℃. In certain embodiments, the saponification time is 0.5h, 1h, or 2h.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the saponified extractant solution has a saponification degree of 80% to 85%. In certain embodiments, the saponified extractant solution has a saponification degree of 83.3%.
And after obtaining the saponified extractant solution, mixing the saponified extractant solution with the rare earth solution for extraction, wherein yttrium is enriched in the water phase, and yttrium-poor rare earth is enriched in the organic phase.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the rare earth solution comprises one or more rare earth ions of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium. In certain embodiments of the present invention, the total concentration of rare earth ions in the rare earth solution is 0.05 to 1.5mol/L. In certain embodiments, the total concentration of rare earth ions in the rare earth solution is 1.15mol/L. In certain embodiments of the invention, the rare earth solution has a pH of 1 to 7. In certain embodiments, the rare earth solution has a pH of 5.5.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the volume ratio of the saponified extractant solution to the rare earth solution is from 70 to 100:20 to 40. In certain embodiments, the volume ratio of saponified extractant solution to rare earth solution is 80:30.
in certain embodiments of the invention, the temperature at which the saponified extractant solution is mixed with the rare earth solution is room temperature.
In certain embodiments of the invention, the temperature of the extraction is room temperature. In certain embodiments of the invention, the extraction time is 0.5 to 3 hours. In certain embodiments, the time for the extraction is 2 hours.
The source of the above-mentioned raw materials is not particularly limited in the present invention, and may be generally commercially available.
The compound provided by the invention can be used as an extracting agent to effectively separate yttrium from lanthanide, and compared with an industrially applied naphthenic acid extracting agent, the extracting agent has the advantages of single component, stable chemical structure, no reduction of the concentration of an extracted organic phase and stable extraction performance; and the extractant has obviously higher separation coefficient on light rare earth elements and yttrium than naphthenic acid, has the same separation coefficient on heavy rare earth elements and yttrium as naphthenic acid, can completely replace naphthenic acid in separation energy efficiency, and has very good application prospect.
The method provided by the invention is used for separating yttrium from lanthanide, can be provided with fewer stages of extraction tanks to achieve the separation effect, and is simple and easy to implement and low in cost.
The invention also provides a preparation method of the compound with the formula (I), which comprises the following steps:
a) Mixing the raw material I, the raw material II, an organic solvent and a catalyst, and reacting to obtain a reaction solution;
b) Mixing the reaction solution with water to obtain an oil phase and a water phase;
c) Carrying out reduced pressure distillation on the oil phase to obtain an intermediate product;
d) And heating and refluxing the intermediate product in an alkaline solution, and performing post-treatment to obtain a final product, namely the compound.
Wherein the structural formula of the raw material I is as follows:
in the formula (II), R 1 And R 2 Independently selected from H or C1-C9 alkyl;
the structural formula of the raw material II is as follows:
in the formula (III), n is a natural number of 1-20;
the intermediate product has the following structural formula:
in the formula (IV), R 1 And R 2 Independently selected from alkyl of C1-C9, and n is a natural number of 1-20.
The step A) comprises the following steps:
a) Mixing the raw material I, a catalyst and an organic solvent to obtain a mixed solution;
b) And mixing the raw material II with the mixed solution, and reacting to obtain a reaction solution.
The raw material I is one or more selected from diphenylamine, 4' -dimethyldiphenylamine, 4' -diethyldiphenylamine, 4' -dibutyldiphenylamine, 4' -dioctyldiphenylamine and 4,4' -dinonyldiphenylamine.
The raw material II is selected from one of malonic acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride, succinic acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride, glutaric acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride, adipic acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride, pimelic acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride and suberic acid monoethyl ester acyl chloride.
The organic solvent is selected from one or more of toluene, xylene, heptane, octane, dichloromethane, chloroform and sulfonated kerosene.
The catalyst is organic base.
The organic base is triethylamine. The organic alkali is used for neutralizing byproduct hydrogen chloride generated in the reaction, so that the product is prevented from being acidified and hydrolyzed by the hydrogen chloride.
The mass ratio of the first raw material to the second raw material is 16-40: 15-18, preferably, the mass ratio of the first raw material to the second raw material is 16.9:17.9 or 19.7:15.0 or 39.3:16.0.
the mass ratio of the raw material I to the organic base is 16-40: 14-16, preferably, the mass ratio of the raw material I to the organic base is 16.9:15.2 or 19.7:15.2 or 39.3:15.2.
in the step A), the dosage ratio of the organic solvent to the first raw material is 30-50 mL: 16-40 g. Preferably, the dosage ratio of the organic solvent to the first raw material is 40mL:16.9g.
In the step a), the mixing is stirring and uniformly mixing.
In the step b), before mixing the raw material two with the mixed solution, the method further comprises: and cooling the mixed solution to 0 ℃ by using ice water bath.
In step b), the reaction is a stirring reaction.
The stirring method and parameters for the stirring reaction are not particularly limited in the present invention, and the stirring method and parameters known to those skilled in the art may be used.
The reaction temperature is 0-20 ℃ and the reaction time is 15-60 min. In certain embodiments, the temperature of the reaction is 0 ℃. In certain embodiments, the time of the reaction is 30min.
The temperature of the reaction was 0 ℃. In certain embodiments, the time of the reaction is 30min.
After obtaining the reaction solution, mixing the reaction solution with water to obtain an oil phase and a water phase. The water is deionized water. The water can extract hydrochloride formed by reaction byproducts of hydrogen chloride and triethylamine into a water phase, and an oil phase is reserved as a target product, so that the product and the byproducts are separated. The present invention is not particularly limited in the amount ratio of the reaction solution to water, and the above separation can be achieved.
And carrying out reduced pressure distillation on the oil phase to obtain an intermediate product.
The method and parameters of the reduced pressure distillation are not particularly limited in the present invention, and those known to those skilled in the art can be used.
After an intermediate product is obtained, the intermediate product is heated and refluxed in a sodium hydroxide solution, and the compound is obtained after acidification and reduced pressure distillation.
The alkaline solution is a sodium hydroxide solution, and a solvent in the sodium hydroxide solution comprises ethanol and water. The volume ratio of ethanol to water in the solvent is 0.5-1.5: 0.5 to 1.5. In certain embodiments, the volume ratio of ethanol to water in the solvent is 1:1. the concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution is 0.01-0.10 g/mL. Preferably, the concentration of the sodium hydroxide solution is 0.05g/mL.
The temperature of the heating reflux is 60-90 ℃, the time is 1-4 h, and the temperature of the heating reflux is preferably 70 ℃. In certain embodiments, the heating reflux time is 4 hours.
In the present invention, the process of heating and refluxing the intermediate product in the sodium hydroxide solution is also a process of hydrolysis.
The post-treatment comprises acidification and reduced pressure distillation.
The reagent used for acidification is hydrochloric acid solution, and preferably, the concentration of the hydrochloric acid solution is 1-8 mol/L. In certain embodiments, the concentration of the hydrochloric acid solution is 6mol/L.
The present invention is not limited to any particular method or parameter for distillation under reduced pressure after acidification, and any method or parameter for distillation under reduced pressure known to those skilled in the art may be used. The reduced pressure distillation was used to remove the solvent.
After the reduced pressure distillation, the method further comprises the following steps: and (5) washing with water. The method of washing with water is not particularly limited in the present invention, and a method of washing with water known to those skilled in the art may be used.
The preparation method of the compound provided by the invention is simple to operate, and the prepared compound has single component and better chemical stability.
In order to further illustrate the present invention, the following examples are given to describe the compounds provided by the present invention, their preparation and use in detail, but should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention.
In the following examples and comparative examples, the content of yttrium and other rare earths in the aqueous phase was measured using an inductively coupled plasma emission spectrometer (hereinafter referred to as ICP-OES). The instrument model is JY ULTIMA 2, produced by France. ICP excitation power is 1.3kW, atomizer flow is 0.75L/min, solution lifting amount is 1.50mL/min, and observation height is 1.4cm. The analytical method refers to the determination of the fifteen rare earth element oxide proportioning quantities of the eighth part of the chemical analytical method of the rare earth concentrate of GB/T18114.8-2010. The separation effect of yttrium and other rare earth ions is measured by a separation coefficient beta, and the calculation method is as follows: let the concentrations of metal ion M1 before and after extraction be Ci1 and Cr1, respectively, and the concentrations of metal ion M2 before and after extraction be Ci2 and Cr2, respectively. The extraction rate E of the metal ions M1 and M2 is then:
metal ionSeparation factor beta of subunits M1 and M2 M1/M2 Expressed as:
it should be noted that in the following examples and comparative examples, the components of the rare earth solution to be extracted are consistent, and the specific preparation requirements are as follows: the total concentration of rare earth ions is 1.15mol/L, the pH value is 5.5, and the concentrations of lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium and yttrium are all 0.0767mol/L.
Example 1
(a) 13.6g of 5-diphenylamino-5-oxopentanoic acid was mixed with 66.4mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution having a concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 5-diphenylamino-5-oxopentanoic acid is shown as the formula (I-1):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of 10.8mo/L aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and saponified at 65 ℃ for 0.5h to give a saponified extractant solution having a saponification degree of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 2
(a) Taking 13.6g of the compound 3- (4, 4' -dimethyl diphenylamino) -3-oxo-propionic acid and mixing with 66.4mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution with the concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 3- (4, 4' -dimethyl diphenylamino) -3-oxo-propionic acid is shown as the formula (I-2):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of a 10.8mol/L aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and saponified at 45 ℃ for 1h to give a saponified extractant solution having a saponification degree of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 3
(a) 23.0g of 4- (4, 4' -di-n-octyldiphenylamino) -4-oxobutyric acid is mixed with 57mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution with the concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 4- (4, 4' -di-n-octyldiphenylamino) -4-oxobutanoic acid is shown as the formula (I-3):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of a 10.8mo/L aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and saponified at 25 ℃ for 2h to give a saponified extractant solution having a degree of saponification of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 4
(a) 24.1g of 5- (4, 4' -dinonyldiphenylamino) -5-oxopentanoic acid was mixed with 57mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution having a concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 5- (4, 4' -dinonyldiphenylamino) -5-oxopentanoic acid is shown as the formula (I-4):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of a 10.8mo/L aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and saponified at 25 ℃ for 2h to give a saponified extractant solution having a degree of saponification of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 5
(a) 15.8g of 8- (4-butyl-4' -ethyl diphenylamino) -8-oxo octanoic acid is mixed with 57mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution with the concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 5- (4, 4' -dinonyldiphenylamino) -5-oxopentanoic acid is shown as the formula (I-5):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of 10.8mo/L aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and saponified at 25 ℃ for 2h to give a saponified extractant solution with a saponification degree of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 6
(a) 27.5g of 5- (3, 4,3',4' -tetrahexylbenzylamino) -5-oxopentanoic acid was mixed with 57mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution having a concentration of 0.60mol/L. The chemical structure of the compound 5- (4, 4' -dinonyldiphenylamino) -5-oxopentanoic acid is shown as the formula (I-6):
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of 10.8mo/L aqueous sodium hydroxide solution and saponified at 25 ℃ for 2h to give a saponified extractant solution with a saponification degree of 83.3%.
(c) At the room temperature, the reaction kettle is used for heating,mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Example 7
(a) 27.5g of the structural compound shown in the formula (1-7) was mixed with 57mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution having a concentration of 0.60mol/L.
(b) The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of a 10.8mo/L aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and saponified at 25 ℃ for 2h to give a saponified extractant solution having a degree of saponification of 83.3%.
(c) Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
Comparative example 1
12g of industrial naphthenic acid is mixed with 68mL of toluene to prepare an extractant solution with the concentration of 0.60mol/L.
The extractant solution was mixed with 3.70mL of a 10.8mo/L aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide and saponified to give a saponified extractant solution having a degree of saponification of 83.3%.
Mixing 80mL of saponified extractant solution with 30mL of rare earth solution at room temperature, extracting for 2h, testing the concentration of rare earth ions in aqueous phase before and after extraction, and calculating the relative separation coefficient beta of each rare earth ion (Ln) relative to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y The test results are shown in table 1.
TABLE 1 relative separation coefficient β of each rare earth ion (Ln) with respect to yttrium ion (Y) Ln/Y
As can be seen from table 1, neither naphthenic acid nor the extractant provided by the present invention is capable of extracting rare earth ions without saponification activation. After saponification activation, the extraction agent prepared in the embodiment of the invention has the separation coefficient beta of heavy rare earth ions (Gd-Lu) and yttrium ions (Y) Ln/Y Both are more than 2.0, which shows that the separation effect is obvious, and compared with industrial naphthenic acid, the extraction agent prepared by the embodiment of the invention has obviously higher separation coefficient of light rare earth (La-Eu) and yttrium ion (Y), higher separation coefficient of heavy rare earth (Gd-Lu) and yttrium ion (Y), and better separation effect of heavy rare earth and yttrium ion, so the extraction agent prepared by the embodiment of the invention can completely replace naphthenic acid in separation energy efficiency, is a potential extraction agent capable of replacing naphthenic acid, and has good application prospect.
The above description of the embodiments is only intended to facilitate the understanding of the method of the invention and its core idea. Various modifications to these embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, the present invention is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.