Sorption methods of separating barium and radium,aluminum and gallum,and zirconium and hafnium

Chromatographic methods of separating elements with very similar properties have now been developed. However, a number of these methods are difficult to use industrially as their throughput is low. The efficiency of chromatographic separation methods could be increased considerably by using appropriate complex formers, which decrease the effective concentration of the ions being separated, and,in the first approximation, this is equivalent to a decrease in the amount of elements being separated. The difference in the formation constants of the complex compounds increases the separation coefficient. By investigating chromatographic separation with the use of various complex formers, we found the optimal conditions for separating barium and radium, zirconium and hafnium, and aluminum and gallium. The throughput of these methods, with respect to the macroelement was 15–60 kg/hr per m² of column cross section.