As rare metals,
tantalum and
niobium are important strategic reserve resources, which have been widely used in medical, military, aerospace and other fields. The separation of tantalum and niobium is very important in the metallurgical and recovery fields of tantalum and niobium because tantalum and niobium have similar properties and often co-exist in nature. It is difficult to separate tantalum and niobium because of their excellent chemical stability and similar chemical properties.
At present, known effective separation methods of tantalum and niobium include step-by-step crystallization, chlorination rectification, ion exchange and solvent extraction. Among them, solvent extraction method is the most widely used.
At present, in the field of tantalum and niobium metallurgy, the mainstream separation method of tantalum and niobium is solvent extraction method, which uses the process of "hydrofluoric acid leaching-MIBK extraction separation", which is recorded in detail in the United States patent 3117833.Specifically, the raw material containing tantalum and niobium was firstly treated with hydrofluoric acid, then the tantalum and niobium in MIBK solution was extracted, and then the tantalum and niobium complexes were extracted with dilute sulfuric acid in organic ketone phase, and then the tantalum and niobium complexes were extracted with pure water. However, the tantalum-niobium separation and recovery process will consume a large amount of hydrofluoric acid, which is a highly corrosive acid, which requires very high equipment, and this method will produce a large amount of fluorine-containing wastes, such wastes and hydrofluoric acid are highly toxic, which will cause great harm to the environment and the operator's body.
