SeparationandPurificationTechnology209(2019)175–181

Solvent extraction behavior of metal ions and selective

separation Sc3+ in phosphoric acid medium using P204
Qing Ye, Guanghui Li1,⁎, Bona Deng, Jun Luo1,⁎, Mingjun Rao, Zhiwei Peng, Yuanbo
Zhang, Tao Jiang
School of MINERALS Processing & Bioengineering, CENTRAL South University, CHANGSHA, HUNAN 410083, CHINA

ABSTRACT
ARTICLEINFO
Acid leaching-solvent extraction is an effective process to
Keywords: Scandium Phosphoric acid Solvent extraction P204 extract scandium from scandium-bearing resources. This
study was aimed to investigate the extraction behavior of
metal ions, including Sc3+, Fe3+, Al3+and Ca2+, in phosphoric
acid medium using P204. More than 95% of scandium was
selectively extracted under the con- ditions of pH value of
1.5–1.8, aqueous-organic ratio of 3 and oscillation for 15
min. The impurity elements like Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+, were
separated via the solvent extraction process using P204
(e.g., separation coefficient of scandium to iron is 298). In
stripping process, the majority of co-extracted metal ions
can be removed from the organic phase with hydrochloric
acid solution. The scandium-bearing organic phase was
stripped with 4 mol/L NaOH, wherein the recovery of
scandium attained about 95% while that of the co-extracted
iron and aluminum were only 3.1% and 1.2%, respectively.
It was also confirmed that both P204 and H3PO4 played roles
in ex- traction reaction, and the desirable extraction of
scandium in P204 was attributed to the ion exchange
between hydrogen ion of ePO(OH) and Sc3+ on acidic
condition (pH = 0.4–1.5). Impurity elements (Fe3+ and Al3+)
also reacted with phosphate anion to form hydrophilic ions,
and in turn result in selective extraction of scandium in
phosphoric acid leachate using P204.

1. Introduction

Scandium is one of rare earth elements and has widely

application on engineering industrials. Scandium mainly exists
in bauxite ores, phosphorite deposits and rare earth ores,
which is associated with other metal elements [1]. Bauxite ore
accounts for 54% of scandium-bearing ore [2]. After
processing bauxite ore in the alumina refineries, scan- dium
and other elements like Fe, Ca and Ti were enriched in
bauxite ore residues. Generally, the bauxite ore residues from
China, Greece, and India etc., contain 100–200 mg/kg of
scandium, which makes these materials exploitable as a
scandium-containing resource [3].
Extraction of scandium from scandium-bearing resources
can be achieved by directly acid leaching using a variety of
lixiviates [4]. From the leachate, scandium is extracted using
solvent extraction technology. The major issue is that the
concentration of impurities, especially iron, aluminum and
calcium in scandium-bearing resources are often much higher
than scandium content, exerting adverse effects on the acidic
leaching and solvent extraction process of scandium. For the
leaching process of hydrochloric acid at concentration of 8
mol/L, majority of
metal ions are dissolved into the leaching solution [5]. Metal
ions like Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+ would be co-extracted during
solvent extraction process. A recent study reported that the
rare earth elements (incl. scandium) in rare earth ore can be
completely extracted into solutions by roasting with
concentrated sulphuric acid at 250–300 °C followed by water
leaching [6]. The fractional extractions, seven or even nine
stages, are also needed to separate impurity elements from
leachate. Kim [7] and Klauber [8] investigated the
performance of bauxite re- sidue in sulfuric acid leaching
medium. Sulfuric acid concentration of 6 mol/L or even 10
mol/L is needed and it is not suitable for high cal-
cium-bearing resources. Calcium sulfate leads to the
formation of emulsion and the third phase during solvent
extraction process, re- sulting in inadequate separation and
scandium loss. Hence, it is im- portant to further investigate
the extraction behavior of metal ions and selective separation
Sc3+ in phosphoric acid medium.
Extraction behavior of scandium in acid medium e.g. nitric
acid,
hydrochloric acid and sulfuric acid was investigated in
previous study. Several acidic extractants including P204,
P507 and P350 are generally used to extract metal ions in
previous study. P204 was used to extract

⁎
Corresponding authors at: Peace Building, RM 253, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China (G. Li). Bio-building, RM 204,
Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410083, China (J. Luo).
E-MAIL ADDRESSES: liguangh@csu.edu.cn (G. Li), luojun2013@csu.edu.cn (J. Luo).
1
Both corresponding authors contributed to this work equally.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.seppur.2018.07.033
Received 13 May 2018; Received in revised form 13 July 2018; Accepted 13 July 2018
1383-5866/©2018ElsevierB.V.Allrightsreserved.

scandium in sulfuric acid leachate derived from nickeliferous
laterite ore [9]. The extraction ratio of scandium was about
80% after scrub- bing process. However, it also needed multi
segmentally stripping process to separate other metal ions.
Zhu et al. [10] and Chang et al.
[11] investigated scandium extraction from red mud by
solvent ex- traction using P507 and P204. The extraction ratio
of scandium reached above 90% in hydrochloric acid medium,
while the metal ions like Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+ were usually
co-extracted. Liu et al. [12] focused on the extraction
mechanism by using phosphorodiamidate (TBP and P204) in
nitric acid medium. Their results revealed that the coordina-
tion reaction occurred between rare earth ions and P]O group.
P204 has strong extraction ability, but it was difficult to
separate Sc3+ from impurity elements in acid medium [11]. In
our previous study [13], P204-H3PO4 solvent extraction
system is proposed to se- lectively separate scandium from
leachate. In this system, the separa- tion coefficients between
scandium and metal ions (e.g. βSc/Fe = 2703) in phosphoric
acid medium are much higher than other kinds of acid like
H2SO4, HNO3 and HCl via solvent extraction process. However,
the mechanism of selective separation of metal ions on
extraction process was not clear. This study was aimed to
systematically investigate the extraction behaviors and
mechanisms of metal ions, including Sc3+, Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+,
in phosphoric acid medium using P204. The ion exchange
between hydrogen ion of ePO(OH) and metal ions was stu-
died for the selective separation from the phosphoric acid
leaching solution of scandium-bearing resources. Finally, a
conceptual process flow sheet for separation of metal ions
including Sc3+, Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+, was proposed.
2. Methods
2.1. EXPERIMENTAL procedure
The pH value of acid leachate was adjusted by adding
phosphoric acid prior to solvent extraction. Samples of P204
reagent have been mixed with the required volume of
kerosene at room temperature. The volumes of both the
contacted aqueous and organic phase were filled into
separating funnel and oscillated for 15 min. After stratifying,
the aqueous phase was withdrawn for analysis, while the
loaded organic phase was washed by HCl solution with
appropriate concentration. Finally, the scandium-bearing
organic phases was stripped with NaOH solution.
The elemental concentration in acid solution was analyzed
using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission
spectrometry (ICP-AES). Furthermore, after solvent
extraction, the concentration of the elements in aqueous
phase were also analyzed using ICP-AES.
The extraction ratio (η), distribution ratio (D), and
separation coefficient (β) were calculated by Eqs. (1)–(3),
respectively.
CA·VA
η = 1− × 100%
Ct·Vt (1)
where η is the extraction ratio; CA is elements contents of
aqueous phase obtained after the solvent extraction, ppm; VA
is the volume of aqueous phase, mL.
D = c0 = Ct·Vt−CA·VA
cA CA·VO
emission spectrometer (ICP-AES, Thermo Fisher Scientific,
Icap7400 Radial, USA).
The loaded organic phase was analyzed using Fourier
transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR, Nicolet, NEXUS-670,
USA). Infrared ab- sorption spectra of samples were obtained
from the KBr pellets by a Fourier transform infrared
spectrometer (Nicolet-470, USA).
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Solvent EXTRACTION BEHAVIORS of METAL ions using P204
As described in our previous work [14,15], the
scandium-rich ma- terial was obtained from bauxite ore
residue after reductive roasting followed by H3PO4 leaching
and NaOH leaching. Iron oxide is changed into metallic iron
by reductive roasting, and aluminum silicate is transformed
to amorphous silica via H3PO4 leaching process. Alumina
enriched in acid residue is further leached by sodium
hydroxide solu- tion. Along with the stepwise recovery of
valuable elements, scandium and titanium are further
enriched in the alkaline leaching residue.
The scandium-rich residue was leached by H3PO4 with 8
mol/L at 120 °C for 60 min. As TiO2+ is the main form in
phosphoric acid lea- chate, before solvent extraction process,
it can be removed as metati- tanic acid precipitate by
adjusting pH value [13]. After adjusting the pH value of
solution, the main chemical composition of leachate used for
solvent extraction test is shown in Table 1. The content of
scandium is enriched to 23.62 mg/L in H3PO4 leachate. The
solvent extraction be- havior and selective separation Sc3+
from Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+ was investigated in this study (see
Fig. 1).
3.1.1. Effect of P204 CONCENTRATION
The effect of P204 concentration (the volume ratio of
P204/organic phase) on extraction behavior was investigated
under the conditions of the phosphoric acid leachate pH value
of 0.5, A/O (the volume ratio of aqueous phase/organic
phase) of 3, and oscillation time of 15 min. The results are
presented in Fig. 2.
The extraction ratio of scandium increased from 45% to
75% with increasing P204 concentration from 1% to 4%, and
the extraction of iron and aluminum also increased. The
extraction ratio of iron was nearly 30% with 4% P204,
whereas it was only 5% with 1% P204. The extraction of
aluminum had the similar trend with increasing P204
concentration. As the results shown in Fig. 2(b), the trend of
separation
coefficient (β(Sc/Fe)) was similar to that of β(Sc/Al), which
increased firstly and then decreased. However, the β(Sc/Ca)
remained stable with P204 concentration increasing.
Therefore, the optimal P204 concentration
was recommended as 2–3% for extraction of scandium.
3.1.2. Effect of INITIAL solution pH
The effect of solution pH value on extraction behavior was
in- vestigated in the aqueous pH value range of 0.1–1.8
under the condi- tions of 2% (V/V) P204, A/O of 3 and
oscillation time of 15 min.
The results in Fig. 3(a) showed that the extraction of
scandium in- creased obviously from 30% to 97% when the
initial pH range in- creased from 0.1 to 1.5, and then
remained constant with the further increase of pH value to
1.8. And also, the extraction ratio of iron re-
(2) markably decreased from 62% to 18%
at the pH range of 0.1–1.5. The
 extraction ratio of
where D is distribution ratio; c0 is the concentration
aluminum
of elements in oil phase, ppm; VO is the volume of
decreased from 22% to 10% at the pH range of 0.1–1.5. The
oil phase, mL.
extraction performance of calcium was similar to scandium,
β = increased from 40% to over 60% with pH value increased. As
(1/2)
the results shown in Fig. 3(b), the β(Sc/Fe) increased with the
D1 increasing
2

is separation coefficient between 1 and 2 Table 1

where β(1/2) The concentration of elements in H3PO4
partition.
leachate solution.

Element Sc Fe
2.2. Instrument techniques Al Ca

Content (mg/L) 23.62 1440

825 6639
Metal ions content of solution samples were determined by plasma
 Phosphoric acid leachate (Sc3+, Fe 3+, Al 3+, Ca2+) aluminum attained maximum of
40% and 43% at A/O of 8, respec-
tively. As the results shown in Fig.
4(b), the separation coefficient ob-
Phosphoric acid
viously decreased with the
increasing of A/O. The separation
coefficient was lower than 20 at A/O
over 4.
Actually, the extraction ratio of
metal ions including Fe, Al and Sc
showed relatively smooth change at
the A/O range of 1–4. And the
consumption of extractant
decreased with A/O ratio increased
at the same volume of aqueous
phase. Hence, A/O of 3–4 was
suitable to extract scandium in
phosphoric acid medium.
Aqueous phase containing Organic phase 1 3.1.4. Effect of EXTRACTION
Fe3+,Al3+ and Ca2+ time
HCl solution
The effect
of
increasing
extraction time from
5 to 20 min on scan-
dium extraction was
investigated under
the conditions of
P204 con- centration
of 2%, initial pH
value of 1.5 and A/O
of 3. The results are
Organic phase 2 indicated in Fig. 5.
Acid leachate containing Fe3+,Al3+
and Ca2+ The results showed that
scandium was almost
NaOH Solution
extracted completely under
the above conditions.
Further, some impurity
ions, particularly calcium
ion, were also extracted.
The extraction ratio of
calcium was about 60% and
remained constant as the
extraction time increased.
The extraction ratios of iron
and aluminum were
decreased with increasing
Aqueous phase Organic phase 3
containing Sc(OH)3 extraction time. The extraction ratio
scandium exceeded 95% under the
same condition and remained stalely
To produce
Scandium oxide & with extraction time extended. As
Scandium, etc. the results shown in Fig. 5(b), the
separation coefficient increased with
increasing extraction time. Overall,
the optimal extraction equilibrium
Fig. 4.
Fig. 1. Procedure of solvent extraction scandium in phosphoric acid
leachate. It can be observed that the extraction ratio of scandium
was almost stable at the A/O range of 1–4 and had
descendent tendency with the increasing of A/O. The
of pH value and attained about 300 at pH 1.5. However, the
extraction ratio of calcium was increased from 40% to above
separation coefficient between scandium and calcium was
60% at the A/O range of 1–6. Thereafter, the extraction ratio
stable as the pH in- creased. Therefore, the optimal pH value
of calcium was stable with A/O increased. The extraction ratio
was recommended as 1.5–1.8 for selective extraction
of iron and aluminum had similar trend with the increasing of
scandium in phosphoric acid medium.
A/O. At the A/O range of 1 to 3, the extraction ratio was less
than 10% and then increased obviously from 4 to 8. The
3.1.3. Effect of A/O extraction ratio of iron and
The effect of the A/O on extraction behavior was
investigated under the conditions of the initial pH value of 1.5
and oscillation time of 15 min, the results are presented in
 was 15–20 min to selectively separate scandium.
Above all, more than 95% of scandium was
selectively extracted under the conditions of pH value of
1.5–1.8, aqueous-organic ratio of 3 and oscillation for 15
min. The impurity elements like Fe3+, Al3+ were selectively
separated through solvent extraction process using P204.
The β(Sc/Fe) and β(Sc/Al) reached above 298 and 200,
respectively.
3.1.5. Stripping LOADED ORGANIC PHASE
Hydrochloric acid is widely adopted for stripping process
[16]. The effect of the hydrochloric acid concentration was
investigated at A/O of 3 with oscillation time of 15 min, the
results are shown in Fig. 6.
The iron
stripping peaked
at 4 mol/L acid with almost 72% Fe being removed. The
removal ratio of aluminum was lower than iron and had
similar trend with iron as the increasing acid concentration,
which reached about 20% at acid concentration of 2 mol/L.
And also, calcium was seldom stripped by hydrochloric acid
solution and the remove ratio of Ca2+ was about 25%.
Therefore, the optimal hydrochloric acid concentration was
determined to be 4 mol/L for stripping condition.
And then, the saturated loaded organic phase was
stripped under the condition of sodium hydroxide
concentration of 4 mol/L, A/O of 3

80 12

70
10

60
8
50

6
40

30 4

2
20

10 0
1 2 3 4 5
Concentration of P204 (%)
1 2 3 4 5
Concentration of P204 (%)

Fig. 2. Effect of P204 concentration on extraction ratio and separation coefficient.

 3000
100

80

2850 þ
(
S
2700

c
/
F
e
)
þ
(
S
c
/
A
l
)
þ
(
S
c
/
C
a
)

60
2550

40 300

(b)
20

0
0

0.0 0.4 0.8 1.2 1.6 2.0 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0
pH pH

Fig. 3. Effect of pH value on the extraction ratio and separation coefficient.

precipitate of Sc(OH)3 obtained. And

and oscillation for 10 min. After
also, the stripping ratio of iron and 3.2. MECHANISMS on selective EXTRACTION of
stripping process, the recovery ratio of
aluminum were 3.1% and 1.2%,
scandium reached 94.7%, and the SCANDIUM
respectively.
 where K is extraction equilibrium
3.2.1. EXTRACTION MECHANISM of constant.
SCANDIUM in phosphoric ACID medium
P204 is a kind of acidic phospholipid D = [M (HL)(2n−z)Lz ]o
(Mn+)
extraction agent, which is usually (6)
present in the form of dimer (H2L2) in Combine (7) and (8):
non-polar solvent [17]. K·(H L )n
=
[H+]z
(7)
log D = log K + n log(H2 L2)o + zpH (8)
The extraction mechanism of P204 in the acid environment The content in the acid solution of scandium was kept at a
certain
was gen- erally shown as Eq. (4). The extraction mechanism value and phosphoric acid was used to adjust the acidity
was proposed and verified through the configuration of pure (pH). When the concentration of P204 was kept at 2%, the
reagent tests, which validate and calculate the corresponding extraction results are presented in Fig. 7(a). By preparing
coefficient. In addition, the con- centration of scandium on the different concentrations of P204 at the same acidity, the
experiments was the same as phosphoric acid leachate extraction results are shown in Fig. 7(b).
obtained. If the value of n and z were 3, the reaction model From Fig. 7(a), the slope of the straight line was 2.91, so
was established as Eq. (9). the value of
z was close to 3. From Fig. 7(b), the slope of the straight line
is 3.02, the value of n also approached 3. Therefore, the
extraction reaction equa-
Mn+ + nH2 L2 = [M (HL)(2n−z)Lz ]o (4) tion could be expressed as: (9)
+ zH+

[M (HL)(2n Sc3+ + 3H2 L2 = [Sc (HL)L3]o +

(5) 3H+
z)Lz ]o ·[H+]z
=
(H2
L2 )n·(Mn+)
o FT-IR analysis of organic phase after extraction process in

100 1200

1000
80

800
60

600

40
400

20
200

0
0 0 2 4 6 8 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Aqueous-organic ratio
Aqueous-organic ratio

Fig. 4. Effect of A/O on the extraction ratio and separation coefficient.

 350
100
300

250
80

200

60 150

100

40
60

20

0
Time (min)
0
4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22
Time (min)

Fig. 5. Effect of time on the extraction ratio and separation coefficient.

80
phosphoric acid medium at pH value range of 0–1.5 is shown
in Fig. 8. The band at 1458 cm−1 is assigned to eCH3
stretching vibration and
70 characteristic vibrational bands for P204 like P-O-C is
identified at 1035 cm−1 [18]. Comparing with Fig. 8(b) and
(c), the peak at
60 1230 cm−1, which is assigned to ePO(OH) stretching, has
shifted to 1207 cm−1 and the intensity of band decreases with
increasing the pH
50 value of phosphoric acid leachate. This phenomenon confirms
that the cationic exchange generated on ePO(OH) in
phosphoric acid medium
40 [19].

30
3.2.2. Role of H3PO4 in selective SEPARATION of METAL ions
In order to investigate the extraction characteristic of
P204 in phosphoric acid medium, FTIR analysis was
20
applied to reveal the bands between P204 and H3PO4. The
analysis results of organic phase before and after
10
phosphoric acid extraction are shown in Fig. 9. The bands
1 2 3 4 5 6 at 2956 cm−1, 2925 cm−1 and 2856 cm−1 are
Hydrochloric acid concentration (mol/L) assigned to eCH3 stretching vibration [20], and the
band at 1378 cm−1 is assigned to eOH stretching vibration
Fig. 6. Effect of hydrochloric acid concentration on washing process. [21]. The characteristic vibrational band of P]O is
identified at 1229 cm−1 and the peak at 1032 cm−1, which
is assigned to P-O-C in P204, has shifted to 1034 cm−1 in
the H3PO4 system [22]. This phenomenon proved that
P204 might react with H3PO4 to form a molecular
association on P]O stretching, as the
3.5

2.5
3.0
2.0

1.5 2.5

1.0 2.0

0.5 0.0
1.5
1.0
-0.5

0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 0.5

-1.0 -2.1 -2.0 -1.9 -1.8 -1.7 -1.6 -1.5
1.4 1.6 -1.4 -1.3 -1.2
p log(P204)
H

Fig. 7. Effect of equilibrium pH and organic concentration on the D value.

 1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
pH
Fig. 11. Cumulative distribution coefficient of phosphoric acid ions.

elements (Fe3+, Al3+ and Ca2+) would also react with

H2PO 2−, HPO 2− and PO 3− to form complex ions in leaching
and 4extraction 4
process [23]. The distribution of ions in phosphoric acid
medium was investigated and the results are shown in Figs.
3500 3000 2500 2000 1500 1000 500 11–13. As shown in Fig. 11 that H3PO4 molecule was the main
Wavenumbers (cm-1) form of phosphoric acid at pH range of 0–1 and content of
(a) pH=0; (b) pH=1.0; (c) pH=1.5 H2PO4− increased obviously as the pH of liquor increased. The
impurity elements like Fe and Al reacted with H2PO − to form
Fig. 8. FT-IR spectra of organic phase after extraction process at hydrophilic ion. According to our previous work, the
different pH values.
precipitation pH of FePO4 and AlPO4 are 4.14 and 4.69,
respectively, in 8 mol/L H3PO4 solution, hence, there content
of precipitation did not express in figures [13]. Figs. 12 and
13 showed that the FeH2PO42+ and AlH2PO 2+ were the main
ion forms, while Ca2+ is the main type of calcium at pH range
of 1.5–1.8.
These hydrophilic ions (e.g. FeH2PO42+ and AlH2PO42+)
were dif- ficult to be extracted by P204 in organic phase,
while the dissociated Ca2+ was easily co-extracted in
phosphoric acid medium [24]. This phenomenon indicated
that scandium and impurity elements like Fe, Al, could be
selectively separated at optimal pH value range. Based on
this method, the separation coefficient of scandium and
impurity ele-
ments in phosphoric acid medium (e.g. β(Sc/Fe) = 298,
β(Sc/Al)=200), including Fe3+ and Al3+, are much higher than
other kinds of inorganic
acid on optimal extraction condition

3200 2800 2400 2000 1600 1200 800 400 4. Conclusions

-1
Wavenumbers (cm )
In this study, the feasibility and mechanism of metal ions
Fig. 9. IR spectra of organic phase before and after phosphoric acid extraction from phosphoric acid leachate were investigated.
extraction.
The experimental results claimed that the extraction ratio of
scandium exceed 95% with limited co-extraction of impurity
elements involving Fe3+ and Al3+ in phosphoric acid medium
under the optimal condition of P204 con- centration of 2%,
pH value of 1.5 and A/O of 3 with oscillation 15 min.
However, the separation coefficient of Sc and Ca (β(Sc/Ca) =
27.3) was
O
R'R''P O OH much lower than
O β(Sc/Fe) and β(Sc/Al).
+ P OH O And then, the
P
R'R''P OH loaded organic
HO OH OH OH OH phase
was washed
with 4 mol/L
HCl, wherein
about 72% of
 impurity Al) were mol/L NaOH, of scandium
ele- removed, and which the reached about
extraction of attributed to
ments (Fe and striped with 4 recovery ratio 95%. scandium in the
The desirable P204 was
Fig. 10. Reaction between P204 and H3PO4 in organic phase. ion exchange between hydrogen ion of ePO(OH) and Sc3+
under acidic condition (pH = 0.2–1.5). The reaction between
results shown in Fig. 10. Compared with the effect of P]O P204 and H3PO4 with the formation of a molecular association
group in P204 alone on extraction reaction in other acid increases the dissociation of P204 to hydrogen ions,
medium, including ni- tric acid [12], hydrochloric acid and improving the selective separation of scandium by cationic
sulfuric acid, etc., this reaction would increase the dissociation exchange. The results also confirmed that the hydrophilicity
of P204 to hydrogen ions and improve extraction ability by and hydrophobicity of coordination ions was the main reason
cationic exchange. for se- lective extraction on the solvent extraction process.
Due to the characteristic of step ionization of H3PO4, Besides, impurity elements (Fe3+ and Al3+) would also act
impurity with phosphoric acid radical
 1.0 1.0

0.8 0.8

0.6 0.6

0.4 0.4

0.2 0.2

0.0
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
0.0 pH
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
4.0

pH

Fig. 12. The distribution of metal ions in phosphoric acid medium: (a) Iron ions; (b) aluminum ions.

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