Heavy Metal Ion Extraction Using Organic Solvents: An Application of the Equilibrium Slope Method

The separation procedure of a chemical species from a matrix is essentially based on the transportation of the solute between the two involved phases, generally an organic and an inorganic one. Specifically, solvent extraction uses the concept of unique solute distribution ratios between two immiscible solvents. However, there are several situations where solutes have been observed to completely move from the inorganic to the organic phase (Anthemidis and Ioannou, 2009).