Phase separation of n-propanol from water and extraction of cadmium(II) complex into n-propanol

n-Propanol can be salted out from aqueous solution by adding inorganic salts. This phase separation method has been used for the extraction of cadmium(ll) as Cd(II) complex into n-propanol phase at pH 2.0-6.0, with 2.5 x 10(-4) M of Rhodamine B (RB+), 2.6 g/10 mL of ammonium sulfate as the salting-out reagent, n-propanol as the solvent, in the presence of 0.065 M of KI. Cd(II) was determined spectrophotometrically by measuring the absorbance at 495 nm. Various parameters influencing the phase separation and the extraction of Cd(II) have been investigated. The method is quite simple and useful; it affords binary separation of Cd(II) from Fe(III), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Mn(II)and Al(III) and is applicable to the separation of Cd(II) from synthetic samples. The extraction mechanism has been tentatively studied.