Synthesis of N-(2-ethylhexyl)-pyridine-4-carboxamide and its synergistic behaviors with dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid for the selective extraction of nickel and cobalt

The hydrometallurgical process for the recovery of nickel and cobalt requires a complex and expensive impurity removal process. Solvent extraction is widely used in industry for the separation, purification, and concentration of metals. However, current commercial extractants encounter some difficulties when cobalt and nickel are extracted from solutions containing a large amount of impurities such as manganese and calcium. There is an urgent need to develop new reagents for the selective extraction of Ni and Co. In this study, N-(2-ethylhexyl)-pyridine-4-carboxamide (NEHPCA) was synthesized, and the metal extraction capacity of its synergistic solvent extraction (SSX) system with dinonylnaphthalene sulfonic acid (DNNSA) and tributyl phosphate (TBP) modifier was examined. The experimental results show that the selectivity of the new SSX system has the order Cu > Ni > Co > Zn > Mn > Ca > Al ≈ Cr (III) ≈ Mg ≈ Fe (III), with excellent selectivity for nickel and cobalt. Using an organic phase composed of 0.7 M NEHPCA, 0.35 M DNNSA, and 0.2 M TBP under 1:1O/A operation, after three-stage theoretical extraction, more than 99% of nickel and cobalt can be recovered from a synthetic leaching solution of nickel laterite ore. Mechanistic studies showed that NEHPCA and water molecules participate in the internal coordination of metals, and DNNSA provided coordination anions to achieve charge balance, forming the Ni complex in this SSX system which existed most likely in the form of [Ni(NEHPCA)2(H2O)4](DNNS)2 in the organic phase.