Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 29 September 2000:
Vol. 289. no. 5488, pp. 2295 - 2296
DOI: 10.1126/science.289.5488.2295
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Perspectives

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING:
Separating Rare Earth Elements

Derek J. Fray

Rare earth elements find a wide range of applications in metallurgy, fuel cells, the coloring of glass and ceramics, and the production of magnets, but their separation is difficult, leading to high prices. In his Perspective, Fray discusses the separation process reported by Uda et al., which greatly reduces the number of separation steps required. If this process is adopted commercially, the price of rare earth elements may be reduced substantially.

The author is in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 3QZ, UK. E-mail: djf25{at}cam.ac.uk

Read the Full Text

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)