abstract
In comparison with the well-described ionic eutectic mixtures, hydrophobic eutectic solvents (HESs) composed of two non-ionic compounds represent a relatively new class of eutectics. In this work, a number of non-ionic HESs liquid at room temperature were identified from a large initial screening of potential mixtures. Three new HESs based on thymol + TOPO (trioctylphosphine oxide), TOPO + capric acid and hydrocinnamic acid + capric acid were investigated as extracting media for the recovery and separation of platinum group and transition metals in HCl media. Full phase diagrams and physical properties including viscosities, densities, chemical stability and the influence of water were characterised, with these HESs presenting low viscosities and high hydrophobicity suitable for application as solvents for liquid-liquid extraction. By simple variation of the eutectic component the selectivity of the system for a given metal could be tuned, with the TOPO-based system displaying good to excellent selectivity towards Pt4+, Pd2+ and Fe3+ under a range of conditions. The extraction mechanism was found to vary due to a complex interplay between the HES composition, acid concentration and the predominant metal complex present. The observed extraction behaviour in HESs composed of two metal complexing ligands such as TOPO + capric acid, in which each respective component is responsible for metal extraction under given conditions, opens the possibility to design hydrophobic eutectic mixtures presenting synergistic effects. Finally, the HES phase following palladium extraction was used as the template for the formation of palladium nanoparticles. The results presented highlight the great potential of HESs as environmentally benign and tuneable media for the solvent extraction of metal ions.
keywords
LIQUID-PHASE MICROEXTRACTION; TRIOCTYLPHOSPHINE OXIDE TOPO; SELECTIVE EXTRACTION; CYANEX 923; DEEP; PLATINUM; PALLADIUM; MIXTURES; RECOVERY; NICKEL
subject category
Chemistry; Science & Technology - Other Topics
authors
Schaeffer, N; Conceicao, JHF; Martins, MAR; Neves, MC; Perez-Sanchez, G; Gomes, JRB; Papaiconomou, N; Coutinho, JAP
our authors
Germán Pérez-Sánchez
Junior Researcher
José R. B. Gomes
Principal Researcher
Márcia Carvalho Neves
Assistant Researcher
Nicolas Schaeffer
Assistant ResearcherGroups
G4 - Renewable Materials and Circular Economy
G5 - Biomimetic, Biological and Living Materials
G6 - Virtual Materials and Artificial Intelligence
acknowledgements
This work was developed within the scope of the project CICECO-Aveiro Institute of Materials, UIDB/50011/2020 and UIDP/50011/2020, financed by national funds through the FCT/MEC and when appropriate co-financed by FEDER under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement. The NMR spectrometers are part of the National NMR Network (PTNMR) and are partially supported by Infrastructure Project No. 022161 (cofinanced by FEDER through COMPETE 2020, POCI and PORL and FCT through PIDDAC).