A systematic study has been carried out for the stepwise chlorination-chemical vapor transport (SC-CVT) characteristics of pure rare earth oxides from Sc2O3 to Lu2O3 mediated by the vapor complexes KLnCl4 and NaLnCl4 (Ln = Sc;
Y and La-Lu) used NaCl and KCl as complex former;
respectively. The results showed that the SC-CVT characteristics are similarly for NaCl and KCl as complex former;
the main deposition temperature of the rare earth chlorides LnCl3 is in the increasing order ScCl3 3 3;
and then with a systematically decreasing trend from the early lanthanide chlorides to the end one. The results also showed that the total transported amount of the produced chlorides is YCl3 > ScCl3;
and they are much higher than that of most lanthanoid chlorides. For lanthanoids;
the total transported amount of chloride increases systematically from the early lanthanoid chlorides to the end one except for EuCl3 and GdCl3 mediated by KCl and NaCl as complex former;
respectively;
which showed the divergence effect of Gd in the total transport efficiency. But there are some differences in SC-CVT characteristics of pure rare earth oxide mediated by KCl and NaCl as complex former;
that is the main deposition temperature region for the same rare earth element was lower for KCl than that for NaCl as complex former except for LaCl3;
CeCl3;
YbCl3 and LuCl3;
while the total transport amount of rare earth chloride for KCl as complex former is higher than that for NaCl except for LaCl3 and EuCl3. More over;
the discussion was carried out for Sc and Y on the one hand and the lanthanides contain 4f electron as another hand based on the 4f electron hybridization assumption. Further more;
the transport characteristics of rare earth oxides with alkaline chlorides as complex former in this study were compared to that with AlCl3 as complex former. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved;