Studies toward the Use of Ionic Liquids and Supercritical CO2 for the Recovery and Separation of Praseodymium from Waste Streams

Abstract

Waste streams from the incineration of metal-containing materials like such as computer processor boards and batteries may contain critical rare earth elements like praseodymium. Data on the solubility of Pr compounds and on their distribution coefficients in supercritical CO2/ionic liquid two-phase systems are important to determine if an ionic liquid/supercritical CO2 two-phase approach is feasible toward the recovery of a particular metal. This work provides data on the solubility of various praseodymium compounds in butyl-methyl-pyrrolidinium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide (BMPyTf2N) ionic liquid and on the distribution coefficients of these praseodymium compounds in the supercritical CO2 phase of the two-phase BMPyTf2N ionic liquid/supercritical CO2 system, with and without a tributyl phosphate additive.