[Steinbeis]

I wanted to extract some awesome Neodymium to make a fricking colour changing crystal.

But now my project fall on a rock and isnt going anywhere.

I had extracted it as chloride and mixed it with ph-decreaser (NaHSO4) and aimed for ph2, ended up with 1.

The anticipated insoluble salt appeared. Yeah!

Next step would be to convert it to the hydroxide, so i grabbed my KOH and threw 3.5 eq. in.

Hardly anything happened, stirred under heat overnight and another 8 hours without heat. 2 phases appeared darker gray and light gray.

I said myself frick it and added sulfuric acid, hoping it would fix everything.
Nope hardly anything happened.

(The night i had utilized a 5.5M koh solution.
Next day green... Green?? Welp.
Took my HCl threw some drops in to see whether something happens and... YES f&#$ YES. Some (very little) solid disappeared and the solution turned vibrant yellow and some gas appeared of unknown composition?... )

But why didnt anything happen?

Any ideas on how to fix it?