p-nonylphenol as a versatile solvent for the liquid-liquid extraction of cationic metal complexes

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.