Essentially anhydrous admixtures of dehydrated rare earth halides and alkali/alkaline earth metal halides
AssigneeRhone-Poulenc Chimie
InventorFrancoise Picard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Essentially anhydrous (i.e., containing no more than 2.5% by weight of water of hydration) admixtures of (i) dehydrated rare earth halides, (ii) at least 10% by weight of alkali and/or alkaline earth metal halides, and (iii) up to 4.5% by weight of rare earth oxyhalides, these halides being other than fluorides, are produced by mixing hydrated rare earth halides with alkali and/or alkaline earth metal halides and then raising the temperature of such admixtures, advantageously in the presence of a gaseous flux containing a dehydrating halocompound, to a value ranging from 150.degree. to 350.degree. C. as to essentially dehydrate the hydrated rare earth halides, the final admixtures are well adapted for the production of rare earth metals therefrom.
Claims17
An essentially anhydrous admixture of (i) a dehydrated rare earth halide, (ii) at least one of an alkali and alkaline earth metal halide and (iii) a rare earth oxyhalide, said halides being other than the fluorides, and said admixture comprising at least 10% by weight of said at least one of an alkali and alkaline earth metal halide (ii), an amount of water of hydration ranging from 0.01% to 2.5% by weight, and an amount of rare earth oxyhalide values ranging from 0.01% to 4.5% by weight.
A process for the preparation of an essentially anhydrous admixture of (i) a dehydrated rare earth halide, (ii) at least one of an alkali and alkaline earth metal halide and (iii) a rare earth oxyhalide, said halides being other than the fluorides, and said admixture comprising at least 10% by weight of said at least one of an alkali and alkaline earth metal halide (ii), an amount of water of hydration ranging from 0.01% to 2.5% by weight, an amount of rare earth oxyhalide values ranging from 0.1% to 4.5% by weight, comprising steps of intimately admixing a hydrated rare earth halide with at least one of an alkali and alkaline earth metal halide, and then raising the temperature of such admixture to a value ranging from 150.degree. C. to 350.degree. C. as to essentially dehydrate said hydrated rare earth halide.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.