Use of Yttrium Phosphate as a Coprecipitant for Separation/Concentration of Lanthanoids

A useful method to separate/concentrate lanthanoids was developed based on a rapid coprecipitation technique using yttrium phosphate. Lanthanoids, which were quantitatively coprecipitated at pH 3 with yttrium phosphate, could be readily determined by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry with indium used as an internal standard element. The detection limits ranged from 0.0003 μg (Yb, Lu) to 0.0099 μg (Er) in 100 mL of sample solutions. The proposed method was applicable to the separation/concentration of lanthanoids in NIST SRM 1515 (apple leaves).