Liquid-liquid extraction, separation recovery and transport of tantalum by crown-ether

A solvent extraction, separation, preconcentration method and recovery of tantalum is reported. Tantalum is extracted with dibenzo-18-crown-6 (DB18C6) in dichloromethane in presence of niobium from 4 M hydrochloric acid. The transport of tantalum(V) ions through a supported liquid membrane containing DB18C6 has been studied. The influence of molarity of acid, carrier concentration, temperature and kinetics of transport is discussed. Tantalum-DB18C6 extract was directly inserted in the plasma for ICP-AES measurement which enhances the sensitivity to 20-folds with the detection limit 1 ng. The mixed compelxes of tantalum-DB18C6 with methyl violet and thiocyanate have also been studied. Tantalum was recovered from tin scrap and determined in standard and sea water samples. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.