The separation of zirconium and hafnium using tributyl phosphate (TBP)-Dodecane extractants in nitric acid medium was performed. Zirconium oxychloride, used as extraction feed, was obtained from the synthesis of Kalimantan zircon sand concentrate smelted using NaOH. The extraction process was carried out by dissolving chloride-based metals in nitric acid media in the presence of sodium nitrate using TBP-Dodecane as an extractant. Some of the extraction parameters carried out in this study include variations in organic phase and aqueous phase (O/A), variations in contact time, and variations in nitric acid concentration. Extraction was carried out using a mechanical shaker according to the parameter conditions. X-ray fluorescence (XRF) was used for elemental (Zr and Hf) composition analysis of the aqueous solution. The results showed that zirconium was separated from hafnium at optimum conditions with an organic/aqueous ratio of 1:5, contact time of 75 min, and an HNO3 concentration of 7 M. The resulting separation factor of zirconium and hafnium using TBP-Dodecane was 14.4887.

Homogeneous liquid crystal (LC) alignment on hafnium strontium oxide (HfSrO) films prepared by sol-gel process via ion-beam (IB) bombardment was investigated. Uniform LC alignment was achieved on the IB-irradiated HfSrO films at IB intensity of 1.8 keV. We confirmed the effect of surface morphology on LC alignment using field-emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM). In addition, we observed electro-optical characteristics of the twisted-nematic (TN)-LC cells based on HfSrO films to verify the possibility of LC display (LCD) application.