New materials in solvent extraction

Traditionally solvent extraction involves contacting an aqueous phase and an organic phase to extract solutes such as metal ions or biochemical products and separate them from mixtures or concentrate them. The organic “solvent” may contain a chelation ligand or an ion exchanger with a modifier dissolved in a diluent. Along with the contactor, process equipment requires fluid phase separators to separate the loaded organic extractant from the aqueous feed. Subsequently, a stripping step is required to recover the metal ion or biochemical and, perhaps, to regenerate the solvent. Such liquid extraction processes have wide applicability for high-volume hydrometallurgical, radionuclear, and biochemical separations.