Proposal of a New Hf(IV)/Zr(IV) Separation System by the Solvent Extraction Method

A liquid-liquid extraction study has been conducted to separate hafnium from zirconium, using Cyanex 301 in kerosene. Noticeably, it is the first time that Cyanex 301 is utilized to separate Hf(IV) from Zr(IV). In this series of experiments, several parameters influencing the separation have been investigated, such as the initial pH, the extractant concentration, the metal ion concentration, the temperature, the type of the diluents and the salt addition. Regarding the aging of the Zr(IV) and Hf(IV) solutions, the solutions with a maximum 3 d aging time could be used with no difficulties. It was observed that the initial pH increase caused an increase in the Zr(IV)/Hf(IV) separation factor. Moreover, the distribution decreased with the temperature increase, suggesting that the reaction is exothermic. In agreement with the resulting data, the optimum separation factor illustrates the value of 7 at a pH of 4.00 in the presence of NaCl as an added salt. The attractive characteristics of the presently designed method are the use of low acidic nitrate solutions, the lack of using thiocyanate and a higher extractability of hafnium-Cyanex 301 relative to zirconium-Cyanex 301 complexes.