Calculation Studies of the Separation of Rare-Earth Metals by Countercurrent Liquid–Liquid Chromatography

Abstract

Calculation studies have been made of the separation and concentration of rare-earth metals by countercurrent liquid–liquid chromatography with the semicontinuous loading of a sample into a chromatographic device using calculation software. This software is shown to be able to calculate chromatograms in steady- and unsteady-state modes for separating rare-earth metals and for concentrating one of the metals in the unsteady-state mode. By varying the number of steps, the sample loading time, and the durations of phase elution steps in each cycle, fractions with given purities of separated metals can be obtained.