Extraction, separation and spectrophotometric determination of cadmium and mercury using triphenylphosphine oxide and its application to environmental samples

Abstract

A method is proposed for the solvent extraction of cadmium and mercury from salicylate media using triphenylphosphine oxide as extractant. The optimum extraction conditions were evaluated from a critical study of the effect of pH, sodium salicylate concentration and the concentration of triphenylphosphine oxide. The probable composition of the species has been deduced from log-log data and an extraction mechanism is suggested. The method has been used to separate zinc, cadmium and mercury from binary and ternary mixtures and for the spectrophotometric determination of mercury or cadmium in environmental samples.