Over the course of the last decade, there has been considerable interest in using ionic liquids as extractants to recover metals from aqueous solution.  In some cases, it is found that rather than extracting the metal in combination with an anion , cations from the ionic liquid exchange with the metal ion; this process can be problematic, as it leads to the decomposition of the ionic liquid.  We use a simple thermodynamic model to show that these processes can be understood as competition between the relative solubilities of the ionic liquid cations and the anions present in the aqueous phase.  We show that this phenomenon can be (and indeed, has been) used to drive a novel synthetic reaction.  We also propose a means by which a co-extractant can be used to promote the extraction of metal ions without leading to decomposition of the ionic liquid phase.

Thermodynamic model for the extraction of metal ions from the aqueous phase using room-temperature ionic liquids

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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