Solvent extraction and separation of palladium(II) and platinum(IV) from hydrochloric acid medium with dibutyl sulfoxide

The solvent extraction and separation performances of Pd(II) and Pt(IV) from hydrochloric acid solutions were investigated using dibutyl sulfoxide (DBSO) diluted in kerosene. Pd(II) was strongly extracted by a lower concentration DBSO in a lower concentration hydrochloric acid solution while the reverse was obtained for Pt(IV) extraction. Based on independent extraction and separation experiments of Pd(II) and Pt(IV), the separation parameters of Pd(II) and Pt(IV), including dibutyl sulfoxide concentration, contact time of aqueous and organic phases, organic/aqueous (O/A) phase ratio and H+ concentration of aqueous phase, were studied in detail, and the optimal separation parameters were obtained and summarized as the following: dibutyl sulfoxide concentration 0.6–1.2 mol dm−3, organic/aqueous (O/A) phase ratio 0.6–1.0, H+ concentration of aqueous phase 1.0–1.5 mol dm−3 and contact time of two phases 5 min. The as-prepared separation parameters were corroborated by the extraction and separation from a synthetic stock solution containing Pd(II), Pt(IV) as well as several common impurities like Fe(II), Cu(II) and Ni(II). The results revealed that Pd(II) could be separated efficiently from Pt(IV) with a high separation coefficient of Pd(II) an Pt(IV) (2.7 × 104) by predominantly controlling dibutyl sulfoxide and hydrochloric acid concentrations. The extraction saturation capacity of Pd(II) was determined from 1.0 mol dm−3 HCl solution with 3 mol dm−3 dibutyl sulfoxide and its experimental value exceeded 14 g dm−3 under the experimental conditions. ing of Pd(II) from loaded organic phase was performed using a mixed aqueous solution containing NH4Cl and ammonia solutes. Pd(II) (99.2%) was stripped using the stripping solution containing 3% (m/v) NH4Cl and 5 mol dm−3 ammonia, respectively.