<i>N-n</i>-octylaniline as a new reagent for analytical liquid-liquid extraction of yttrium(III) from matrices of various metal ions

Abstract

A systematic study of solvent extraction behavior of yttrium(III) with N-n-octylaniline from salicylate media was carried out. Yttrium(III) was quantitatively extracted from 0.02–0.05 mol dm–3 NaSal at pH 9.7 – 10.5 with 0.17 mol dm–3 N-n-octylaniline in xylene. The extraction was found to proceed by an anion exchange mechanism with the extraction species being [CH3(CH2)7(C6H5)NH2+Y(C7H4O3)2–] ascertained on the basis of slope analysis. The extracted metal ion was separated by selective stripping with hydrochloric acid or perchloric acid from the metal loading organic phase and estimated spectrophotometrically following a complexation with Alizarin Red S. A binary separation of yttrium(III) from Th(IV), U(VI), Zr(IV), Nb(V), La(III), Nd(III), Ce(IV) and Gd(III) is discussed.

Keywords

• yttrium(iii)
• n-n-octylaniline
• solvent extraction
• salicylate