SEPARATION OF LIGHTER RARE-EARTH METAL-IONS BY CENTRIFUGAL COUNTERCURRENT TYPE CHROMATOGRAPHY WITH DI-(2-ETHYLHEXYL)PHOSPHORIC ACID

A centrifugal countercurrent type chromatography (Centrifugal Partition Chromatography) was applied to separations of lighter rare earth metal ions (LaCl//3, CeCl//3, PrCl//3, NdCl//3, SmCl//3 and EuCl//3) first time. The results obtained by using di-(2-ethylhexyl)phosphate (D2EHPA) showed that this technique is successfully usable for the laboratory-scale separations, though the numbers of theoretical plate calculated from the chromatograms were considerably lower than expected.