Remarkably High Separation of Neodymium from Praseodymium by Selective Dissolution from their Oxide Mixture using an Ionic Liquid Containing aß-Diketone.

A simple, efficient, direct and economical method for the mutual separation of Nd and Pr was developed by the selective dissolution of Nd2O3 from their oxide mixtures in an ionic liquid containing 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone (HTTA) resulting in an unprecedented separation factor (ßNd/Pr)>500, which is 277 times more than the thus far reported ßNd/Pr values. The proposed mechanism was supported by DFT computations.