Separation of red (Y2O3: Eu3+), blue (Sr, Ca, Ba)10(PO4)6Cl2: Eu2+ and green (LaPO4: Tb3+, Ce3+) rare earth phosphors by liquid/liquid extraction

A novel process for separation of red (Y2O3: Eu3+), blue (Sr, Ca, Ba)10(PO4)6Cl2: Eu2+ and green (LaPO4: Tb3+, Ce3+) fine tricolor phosphor powders was established. First, the green phosphor was extracted and separated from three phosphor mixtures in heptane/DMF(N, N-Dimethylformamide) system using stearylamine or laurylamine (DDA) as the cationic surfactant. Then, after being treated with 99.5% ethanol, the blue and red phosphors could be separated in Heptane/DMF system in presence of 1-octanesulfonic acid sodium salt as the anionic surfactant. Satisfactory separation results have been achieved through two steps extractions with their artificial mixtures. The grades and recovery of separated products reached respectively as follows: red product was 95.3% and 90.9%, blue product was 90.0% and 95.2%, and green product was 92.2% and 91.8%.