Sciencemadness Discussion Board

How to dissolve NdF3 ?

Inorganic - 12-7-2008 at 08:04

Hi

I have a problem with dissolution Neodymium Fluoride. I try to dissolve NdF3 in any "solvent" like H2O, 30% HCl, H2SO4 50%, 30% oleum - without any effect. Any suggest ?

UnintentionalChaos - 12-7-2008 at 10:06

Have you tried nitric acid? A lot of times, nitric dissolves funny stuff...like calcium sulfate to a reasonable extent...which caused me to lose points on a chemical identification lab. Perhaps fusion with molten NaOH and dissolution of the mass would afford an oxide or hydroxide that can be made to react more easily.

Jdurg - 12-7-2008 at 13:18

Be very careful that you don't liberate HF while trying these dissolutions. You wouldn't want to destroy any expensive glassware you have or your own body.

ShadowWarrior4444 - 12-7-2008 at 14:01

Quote:
Originally posted by Jdurg
Be very careful that you don't liberate HF while trying these dissolutions. You wouldn't want to destroy any expensive glassware you have or your own body.


Fusion with NaCl should provide NaF and NdCl3, which is quite a useful reagent for optical sciences. Though, NdF3 is as well:
http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=1972233

Perhaps you could find a Sol-Gel use for NdF3 and make your own laser crystals.

Ancillary: It seems your original intent is to dissolve NdF3 as itself, and not convert it to anything else. For this purpose I recommend either Ionic Liquids or some clever organic ligand tricks. Researching sol-gel uses of NdF3 should give you information on the organic ligand part. As for Ionic Liquids, one of them should be able to dissolve it, Choline Chloride/Glycerol is probably the most convenient, but will require research on your part.

It might also help to know why you want to dissolve it--for what purpose. If it is to grow a large crystal of it, or to layer it on to MgF2, the Sol-Gel methods would likely be the best.

[Edited on 7-12-2008 by ShadowWarrior4444]

not_important - 13-7-2008 at 06:06

The lanthanide fluorides are fairly resistant to common attacking solvents, in the reprocessing of nuclear fuel they resist solution in the nitric acid based solutions used. If the goal is to get Nd(3+) into solution you need complexing agents for both the lanthanide and fluoride, or use alkaline fusion (Na2CO3) to convert the fluoride to oxide, which can be dissolved in acids after washing away the NaF.

If you with to grow crystals of NdF3, there seems to be two main methods. For large crystals molten alkali (Li/Na/K) fluorides can be used. For nano-scale crystals, generally controlled precipitation from aqueous solutions of soluble lanthanide complexes is used; this is often a hydrothermal process run at supra-normal pressure.

-jeffB - 13-7-2008 at 08:39

Quote:
Originally posted by ShadowWarrior4444
Ancillary: It seems your original intent is to dissolve NdF3 as itself, and not convert it to anything else. For this purpose I recommend either Ionic Liquids or some clever organic ligand tricks. Researching sol-gel uses of NdF3 should give you information on the organic ligand part. As for Ionic Liquids, one of them should be able to dissolve it, Choline Chloride/Glycerol is probably the most convenient, but will require research on your part.


I'd expect that one of the fluoride-based ionic liquids would be a better pick, but they're pretty pricey, and look like not much fun to work with.