Extraction ability of N,N-dioctylthiodiglycolamic acid (T-DODGAA), a soft-base sulfur donor ligand with an amide group and a carboxylic acid connected by a thioether chain, for 56 metal ions have been comprehensively investigated and compared with that of N,N-dioctyldiglycolamic acid (DODGAA) with an etheric oxygen atom, a hard-base donor. The acid dissociation constant (pKa) of the thiodiglycolamic acid framework was determined to be 3.71 ± 0.06 in water (0.1 M LiCl, 25 °C) by potentiometric titration, indicating that T-DODGAA is a slightly weaker acid than DODGAA (pKa = 3.54 ± 0.03). T-DODGAA can quantitatively extract various metal ions from the 56 metal ions into the organic phase (isooctane) through a proton-exchange reaction. T-DODGAA provided higher extraction performance than DODGAA for Hf(IV), Cr(III), Fe(III), Ni(II), Cu(II), Pd(II), Ag(I), Au(III), Hg(II), Al(III), and Ga(III), especially for soft metal ions. Furthermore, to demonstrate the practical feasibility of T-DODGAA for hydrometallurgy and metal recycling, we performed selective separation tests of rare metal ions such as Sc(III), Ni(II), Co(II), Pd(II), Au(III), In(III), and Ga(III) in metal-mixed extraction systems.
Keywords: Acid dissociation constants; Diglycolamic acid; Rare metals; Separation and purification; Solvent extraction; Thiodiglycolamic acid.
© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to The Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry.