Metal chelates solvent extraction

The group of metal chelates with /3-diketones and similar ligands can be extracted from weakly acid aqueous solutions under set pH conditions with an organic solvent, in which the chelate-forming substance is soluted. Excess reagent can be re-extracted in the aqueous phase with diluted sodium hydroxide the metal chelate remains in the organic solvent. Polar metal chelates require packed columns with deactivated supporting materials because of their temperature sensitivity. 

If a neutral chelate formed from a ligand such as acetylacetone is sufficiently soluble in water not to precipitate, it may stiH be extracted into an immiscible solvent and thus separated from the other constituents of the water phase. Metal recovery processes (see Mineral recovery and processing), such as from dilute leach dump Hquors, and analytical procedures are based on this phase-transfer process, as with precipitation. Solvent extraction theory and many separation systems have been reviewed (42). 

In the case of inorganic solutes we are concerned largely with samples in aqueous solution so that it is necessary to produce substances, such as neutral metal chelates and ion-association complexes, which are capable of extraction into organic solvents. For organic solutes, however, the extraction system may sometimes involve two immiscible organic solvents rather than the aqueous-organic type of extraction. 

The nature of the donor atoms in the chelating agent. Ligands which contain donor atoms of the soft-base type form their most stable complexes with the relatively small group of Class B metal ions (i.e. soft acids) and are thus more selective reagents. This is illustrated by the reagent diphenylthiocarbazone (dithizone) used for the solvent extraction of metal ions such as Pd2+, Ag+, Hg2+, Cu2+, Bi3+, Pb2+, and Zn2 +. ... 

The choice of a satisfactory chelating agent for a particular separation should, of course, take all the above factors into account. The critical influence of pH on the solvent extraction of metal chelates is discussed in the following section. 

The solvent extraction of a neutral metal chelate complex formed from a chelating agent HR according to the equation... 

An alternative to the formation of neutral metal chelates for solvent extraction is that in which the species of analytical interest associates with oppositely charged ions to form a neutral extractable species.6 Such complexes may form clusters with increasing concentration which are larger than just simple ion pairs, particularly in organic solvents of low dielectric constant. The following types of ion association complexes may be recognised. 

Other fluorinated derivatives of acetylacetone are trifluoroacetylacetone (CF3COCH2COCH3) and hexafluoroacetylacetone (CF3COCH2COCF3), which form stable volatile chelates with aluminium, beryllium, chromium(III) and a number of other metal ions. These reagents have consequently been used for the solvent extraction of such metal ions, with subsequent separation and analysis by gas chromatography [see Section 9.2(2)]. 

Multi-element analyses involving solvent extraction and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) have also been described. The extracts, containing metal-chelate complexes with sulphur-containing reagents, such as dithizone and diethyldithiocarbamate, were used directly for determination of the metals by HPLC.14... 

Theory. Conventional anion and cation exchange resins appear to be of limited use for concentrating trace metals from saline solutions such as sea water. The introduction of chelating resins, particularly those based on iminodiacetic acid, makes it possible to concentrate trace metals from brine solutions and separate them from the major components of the solution. Thus the elements cadmium, copper, cobalt, nickel and zinc are selectively retained by the resin Chelex-100 and can be recovered subsequently for determination by atomic absorption spectrophotometry.45 To enhance the sensitivity of the AAS procedure the eluate is evaporated to dryness and the residue dissolved in 90 per cent aqueous acetone. The use of the chelating resin offers the advantage over concentration by solvent extraction that, in principle, there is no limit to the volume of sample which can be used. 

J Stary, The Solvent Extraction of Metal Chelates, Pergamon Press, Oxford, 1964... 

The procedure followed entails the removal of gross interferences by solvent extraction, and the selective extraction and concentration of the trace metal by use of a chelating agent. The alloy used should not contain more than 0.1 g of copper in the sample weighed out. 

Kinetics and mechanism of metal chelation processes via solvent extraction techniques. H. Freiser, Acc. Chem. Res., 1984,17,126-131 (40). 

A normal-phase HPLC separation seems to be useful to separate major chlorophyll derivatives, but it is not compatible with samples in water-containing solvents an additional extraction step is required to eliminate water from the extract since its presence rednces chromatographic resolution and interferes with retention times. Besides that, the analysis cannot be considered quantitative due to the difhculty in transferring componnds from the acetone solution into the ether phase. On the other hand, an advantage of the normal-phase method is its efficacy to separate magne-sinm-chlorophyll chelates from other metal-chelated chlorophyll derivatives. ... 

Co (I I) complex formation is the essential part of copper wet analysis. The latter involves several chemical unit operations. In a concrete example, eight such operations were combined - two-phase formation, mixing, chelating reaction, solvent extraction, phase separation, three-phase formation, decomposition of co-existing metal chelates and removal of these chelates and reagents [28]. Accordingly, Co (I I) complex formation serves as a test reaction to perform multiple unit operations on one chip, i.e. as a chemical investigation to validate the Lab-on-a-Chip concept. 

Liquid chromatographic methods are well suited to the separation and determination of metal chelates that can be extracted into organic solvents. Many chelates also absorb strongly in the UV onAisible regions, facilitating detection. The... 

The given structure shows two molecules of TTA to have reacted with a cobalt ion to form the cobalt-TTA complex, in which the cobalt atom forms a valence bond solid lines) with one, and a coordinate bond (broken lines) with the other, oxygen atom of each TTA molecule. Thus, in the cobalt-TTA complex there is a six-membered ring formed by each TTA molecule with the cobalt atom. Metal chelate complexes of this type have good stability, they are nonpolar and soluble in the organic phase. The usefulness of the chelating extractants in solvent extraction is therefore obvious. 

Use of immobilised chelating agents for sequestering trace metals from aqueous and saline media presents several significant advantages over chelation-solvent extraction approaches to this problem [193,194], With little sample manipulation, large preconcentration factors can generally be realised in relatively short times with low analytical blanks. 

Table 5.13. Pre-concentration of metals in sea water chelation-solvent extraction techniques followed by direct AAS and graphite furnace AAS... 

A variety of preconcentration procedures has been used, including solvent extraction of metal chelates, coprecipitation, chelating ion exchange, adsorption onto other solids such as silica-bonded organic complexing agents, and liquid-liquid extraction. 

A logical approach which serves to minimise such uncertainties is the use of a number of distinctly different analytical methods for the determination of each analyte wherein none of the methods would be expected to suffer identical interferences. In this manner, any correspondence observed between the results of different methods implies that a reliable estimate of the true value for the analyte concentration in the sample has been obtained. To this end Sturgeon et al. [21] carried out the analysis of coastal seawater for the above elements using isotope dilution spark source mass spectrometry. GFA-AS, and ICP-ES following trace metal separation-preconcentration (using ion exchange and chelation-solvent extraction), and direct analysis by GFA-AS. These workers discuss analytical advantages inherent in such an approach. 

The best way to take advantage of the organic solvent effect without simultaneously diluting the sample is by employing solvent extraction. By this method the element to be analyzed can actually be concentrated and a solution of the element is obtained in essentially pure organic solvent. One of the most commonly used systems involves formation of the metal chelate with ammonium 1-pyrro-lidinecarbodithioate (APDC) and then extracting this into methylisobutyl ketone (MIBK). APDC chelates of many elements form and extract into MIBK from acid solution. 

Efficiency of Extraction. Selectivity of Extraction. Extraction Systems. Extraction of Uncharged Metal Chelates. Methods of Extraction. Applications of Solvent Extraction. 

Thus, for a given reagent and solvent, the extraction of the metal chelate is dependent only upon pH and the concentration of reagent in the organic phase and is independent of the initial metal concentration. 

The major anions and cations in seawater have a significant influence on most analytical protocols used to determine trace metals at low concentrations, so production of reference materials in seawater is absolutely essential. The major ions interfere strongly with metal analysis using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectroscopy (GFAAS) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and must be eliminated. Consequently, preconcentration techniques used to lower detection limits must also exclude these elements. Techniques based on solvent extraction of hydrophobic chelates and column preconcentration using Chelex 100 achieve these objectives and have been widely used with GFAAS. 

Many hydroxyp5rranones and hydroxypyridinones and their metal complexes have been of importance in analytical chemistry, solvent extraction, and metal separation. Here their excellent chelating properties in conjunction with the possibility of synthesizing strongly lipophilic derivatives make this class of ligands particularly useful. 

Therefore, the distribution ratio of B remains constant only if the ratio of the activity coefficients is independent of the total concentration of B in the system, which holds approximately in dilute solutions. Thus, although solutions of metal chelates in water or nonpolar organic solvents may be quite nonideal, Nernst s law may still be practically obeyed for them if their concentrations are very low (JCchehte< 10" ). Deviations from Nernst s law (constant D ) will in general take place in moderately concentrated solutions, which are of particular importance for industrial solvent extraction (see Chapter 12). 

Solvent extraction is a powerfnl techniqne in research on metal complexes. Consider a metal complexed by a chelate componnd (see Chapter 3), where the chelate is a weak organic acid. For example, the nranyl ion can be nentrahzed... 

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