Acetylacetone as an Analytical Extraction Agent [Thesis]

It has been shown that acetylacetone-water systems are well suited for theoretical study of the extraction behavior of metal chelates, and permit a number of practical separations. The characteristics of an acetylacetone-water system may be summarized as follows: (1) The solubility of acetylacetone in dilute sulfuric acid is constant enough between pH 0 and pH 7 to enable equilibrium extraction curves to be obtained without making corrections for change in reagent concentration caused by either distribution or chelation. (2) The solubility of acetylacetonates in acetylacetone is sufficiently large to permit macro as well as micro extractions to be performed. (3) The high reagent concentration in the water layer permits extraction in more acid solutions and minimizes the effect of hydrolysis. It also increases the rate of attaining equilibrium and thus assures reproducibility of extraction data, (U) The wide variation of the pe values in this system may permit additional separations not possible in other systems.