p-Nonylphenol as a Versatile Solvent for the Liquid–Liquid Extraction of Cationic Metal Complexes

Abstract

The potential usefulness of p-nonylphenol as an extraction solvent has been demonstrated for the extraction of cationic metal complexes. The hydrophobicity of alkylphenol increases with an increase in alkyl chain length and p-nonylphenol floats on the surface of aqueous solutions in the form of a droplet. We found that the cationic metal complexes with ferroin, crown ether and thiacrown ether type ligands were quantitatively extracted into the p-nonylphenol phase without the presence of bulky counter anions. Furthermore, p-nonylphenol acts as a reducing media, making it unnecessary to add a reducing agent for the reductive extraction of metal ions, viz., copper(I)–neocuproine complex.