Extraction - Metals Processing

Department of Chemical Engineering University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin 

Although electrolytes normally do not exhibit significant solubility in nonpolar solvents, many metal ions can react with a wide veriety of organic compounds to form species that are soluble in organic eolvenls. Such solubility, which depends on a chemical reaction, provides a basis for separating and concentrating metals that are present as ions in aqueons eolution. 

As with many separation processes, solvent extraction of metals was first developed as a tool of the analytical chemist. Chemical reagents and solvents are known for isolating virtually every metallic elemem of the Periodic Table. In the 1940s and 1950s some of this basic analytical chemistry was used to develop 

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Chapman, T.W. Extraction—metals processing. In Handbook of Separation Process Technology, Chap. 8 Rousseau, R.W. Ed. John Wiley and Sons New York, 1987, 467. 

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