High purity samarium oxide from mixed rare earth carbonates

A simple and economical chemical process for the production of highly pure samarium oxides is discussed. The raw material, which was used in the form of rare earth carbonates was produced industrially from the chemical treatment of Brazilian monazite. Ion exchange chromatography was performed using a strong cationic resin that is typically employed in water treatment processes to fractionate rare earth elements (REE) without the use of retention ions. Under these conditions, 99.9% pure Sm2O3 was eluted using the ammonium salt of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) at a controlled pH. The EDTA-samarium complex was separated from EDTA and then precipitated as oxalate and fired to samarium oxide. Molecular absorption spectrophotometry was used to monitor the samarium content during the proposed process, and sector field inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to certify the purity of the samarium oxide. Typical samarium oxide obtained from the proposed procedure contained the following contaminants in micrograms per gram: Sc (20.90); Y (11.80); La (8.4); Ce (4.3); Pr (2.5); Nd (5.1); Eu (94); Gd (114); Tb (3.6); Dy (2.5), Ho (2.3); Er (3.0); Tm (2.3); Yb (38,2); Lu (25.6). The high-purity samarium oxides produced in the present study can be used as an alternative to imported products in research and development applications. (author)