Liquid Phase Extraction and Separation of Noble Organometallic Catalysts by Functionalized Ionic Liquids

Abstract The separation of two noble organometallic catalysts from a homogeneous organic phase was investigated using liquid phase extraction with functionalized ionic liquids. Thirteen functionalized ionic liquids containing amino, hydroxy, thioether, carboxylic, or olefin functional groups were prepared by a standard neutralization method. The extractions of Jacobsen's catalyst and Wilkinson's catalyst were conducted using the functionalized ionic liquids as the extraction phase without adding any other metal complexing extractant. The distribution factors between the ionic liquid (IL) phase and toluene (organic solution phase) demonstrated that the functional groups in ILs exhibited moderate to high affinity with the metal complexes. The influence of the ionic liquid structure on the distribution factors was also investigated.