Experiments on the magnetic enrichment of rare-earth metal ions in aqueous solutions in a microflow device

An attempt is made to achieve a continuous enrichment of rare-earth metal ions from aqueous solutions in a microflow device by applying magnetic forcing. An aqueous solution containing holmium(III) ions is pumped through a small channel which was exposed to a strong inhomogeneous magnetic field. At the outflow, the near- and far-field parts of the flow are separated and analyzed using UV-Vis spectroscopy. The relative change of ion concentration is determined from the measured absorbance. Results are reported for three different types of flow cells at different flow rates and magnetic field strengths and for a cascaded application of cells. The change of concentration is found to be small, and no clear trend can currently be stated due to the error margin of the concentration measurement.