Separation of metal trifluoroethylxanthates by thin-layer chromatography

Abstract

The thin-layer chromatographic behaviour of metal trifluoroethylxanthates on silica gel in 16 pure solvents and ten binary solvent mixtures has been examined. Ten metal xanthates, viz., cobalt(II), copper(II), nickel(II), iron(III), tellurium(II), selenium(II), molybdenum(V), lead(II), zinc(II) and bismuth(III) can be separated after their development with pure solvents, such as 1,2-dichloroethane, toluene and benzene and with binary solvents such as dioxane-chloroform (1 + 2 V/V), dioxane-carbon tetrachloride (1 + 3 V/V), dichloroethane-carbon tetrachloride (1 + 3 V/V) and benzene-toluene (1 + 1 V/V). The R_F values were found to increase generally in the following order: Te(II) < Mo(V) < Bi(III) < Pb(II) < Fe(III) < Co(II) < Ni(II) < Se(II) < Zn(II) < Cu(II); the chromatographic behaviour of the metal xanthates is discussed. The visible and stable colours of cobalt and copper trifluoroethylxanthate complexes are utilised for the detection of these ions by TLC and the method has been applied to the determination of copper and cobalt in certain alloys.