Thermodynamics of Two-phase Liquid-Liquid Distribution of Metal Complexes Studied by the AKUFVE-Technique

Department of Nuclear Chemistry, Chalmers University of Technology, Fack, S-402 20 Goteborg 5, Sweden

After pointing out the importance to industrial chemistry of the particular research area, the thermodynamics of solvent extraction is discussed, particulary with reference to the theory of regular solutions. The experimental problem of determining ∆H and ∆S for the distribution of uncharged metal complexes between two immiscible solvents is indicated. The application of the AKUFVE-technique will be shown to be very useful ; the AKUFVE is a new semi-automatic device for repaid and accurate collection of solvent extraction data.

The chemical forces involved in solvent extraction are quite weak, and ∆H and ∆S thus rather small. The experimental data must therefore be interpreted with great care and supporting information collected from solubility, vapor pressure, structural and other studies. Values of ∆H and ∆S for the distribution of Metal acetylacetonates between different organic solvents and aqueous solutions of varying ionic strength will be given and commented upon.