Cerium Recovery From Mischmetal

[olmpiad]

Ok, most everybody knows that the cheap mischmetal used in firestarters is pretty much an alloy of Ce and Fe, along with trace amounts of Mg, Mn, etc. My goal is to extract the Cerium in a salt for from this. I have looked around, and found that Cerium Oxalate is not water soluble. I know that Iron Oxalate is quite water soluble from my mineral-collecting hobby (oxalic acid is used to turn ferroferrous dirt deposits in quarts in to iron oxalate, which then goes into solution, leaving the quartz spotless). Therefore, I should be able to have Cerium Oxalate precipitate out of a solution of the dissolved mischmetal by the addition of oxalic acid. My question is, should I just dissolve the mischmetal directly in oxalic acid, or should I dissolve it in something else, and react that with oxalic acid? If so which acid should I dissolve the mischmetal in? I will try to post pictures with my results (if my results end up positive).

[insane_alien]

dissolve the mischmetal that produces soluble salts for both metals(this will ensure that no parts of the metal are shielded by the insoluble salt) then chuck in the oxalic acid and the cereium oxalate should precipitate out.

[YT2095]

I did this once! and damn if I can rem HOW I did it now, I`m fairly sure it involved making Cerium oxide.hydroxide (also near insoluble).

I went on to make the Nitrate.

 

I use Lighter flints to extract mine from (same thing you`re doing more or less).

 

IIRC this metal Will react in boiling water too.

[olmpiad]

 

IIRC this metal Will react in boiling water too.

 

Ok, so If i dissolve the flint in water, can I react that with the oxalic acid, or should I dissolve it in nitric or something along that road?

[YT2095]

I honestly don`t rem HOW I did it, I Do know that I exploited solubilty as you intend to, and I had no oxalic acid at that time. only the Basic acids, Nitric, HCl, H2SO4, and sodium metal.

 

 

lemme sleep on it, it MAY come back to me.