US Patent Issued to Winston-Salem State University on Sept. 23 for "Separation and purification of rare-earth elements by chemical reduction in aqueous solutions" (North Carolina Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,421,124, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Winston-Salem State University (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

"Separation and purification of rare-earth elements by chemical reduction in aqueous solutions" was invented by Nathan Aaron Stump (Chapel Hill, N.C.) and Jafar Gharavi Naeini (Winston-Salem, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The subject matter described herein includes a method of separating a mixture of trivalent rare-earth elements, based on their reduction potential, and solubility in a divalent state. The method includes adding the mixture of trivalent rare-earth elements to a tetraborate salt with deionized water to form a salt mix...