US 4,053,551 AGranted

Methods of recovering terbium oxide from a glass

AssigneeOwens-Illinois, Inc.

InventorsJames E. Brug, Eric X. Heidelberg

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Abstract

A method for recovering Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 from a glass containing terbium oxide is disclosed, the method including the steps of: I. fusing the glass containing terbium oxide with NaOH to provide a solid fusion product; Ii. slurrying the fusion product of Step I to disperse solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 and any Li.sub.2 SiO.sub.3 present and to dissolve any Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, NaOH and Na.sub.2 SiO.sub.3 to thereby separate the same from the solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 ; Iii. reacting the solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 of Step II with HNO.sub.3 to provide Tb(NO.sub.3).sub.3 ; Iv. reacting the Tb(NO.sub.3)3with oxalic acid to form Tb.sub.2 (C.sub.2 O.sub.4).sub.3 ; and V. firing the Tb.sub.2 (C.sub.2 O.sub.4).sub.3 to form CO.sub.2 and solid Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 to that is recovered from the glass.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A method of recovering Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 from a glass containing terbium oxide, the method comprising the steps of:

I. fusing the glass containing SiO.sub.2, Li.sub.2 O, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and terbium oxide with NaOH to provide a solid fusion product;
Ii. slurrying in water the fusion product of Step I to disperse solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 and Li.sub.2 SiO.sub.3 and dissolving the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, NaOH and Na.sub.2 SiO.sub.3 to thereby separate said Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, NaOH and Na.sub.2 SiO.sub.3 from the solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 ;
Iii. reacting the solid particles of Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 separated from the slurry of step II with HNO.sub.3 to provide Tb(NO.sub.3).sub.3 ;
Iv. reacting Tb(NO.sub.3).sub.3 with oxalic acid to form Tb.sub.2 (C.sub.2 O.sub.4).sub.3 ;
and
V. firing Tb.sub.2 (C.sub.2 O.sub.4).sub.3 to form Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7 and CO.sub.2 to thereby recover solid Tb.sub.4 O.sub.7.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.