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US 9,206,056 B2Granted
Treatment of tantalum- and/or niobium-containing compounds
AssigneeThe South African Nuclear Energy Corporation Limited
InventorsPieter Andries Blatt Carstens, Jacobus Beyers Wagener, Andrew Dirk Pienaar
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Abstract
A process for treating a feedstock comprising tantalum- and/or niobium-containing compounds is provided. The process includes contacting the feedstock with a gaseous fluorinating agent, thereby to fluorinate tantalum and/or niobium present in the feedstock compounds. The resultant fluorinated tantalum and/or niobium compounds are recovered.
Claims17
A process for treating a feedstock comprising tantalum-oxide and niobium-oxide, which process includes
- contacting the feedstock with a gaseous fluorinating agent, with the gaseous fluorinating agent reacting directly, in a fluorinating reaction, with the tantalum-oxide and niobium-oxide thereby to fluorinate the tantalum and niobium present in the oxides;
- wherein
- either one of tantalum and niobium is preferentially converted to a pentafluoride compound, while the other is converted to an oxyfluoride compound, or both tantalum and niobium are converted to oxyfluoride compounds;
- and
- recovering the resultant fluorinated tantalum and niobium compounds by means of fraction sublimation.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.