Use of Amines in Inorganic Hydrolysis

FOLLOWING the work of Smith and Page 1 , amines have been widely used for the extraction of acids from aqueous solutions. We have applied this process to the hydrolysis of inorganic salts in aqueous solution without the introduction of any reagents into the aqueous phase. An amine which is immiscible with the aqueous phase is used to extract the acid formed on the hydrolysis of the salt and under suitable conditions insoluble complexes can be precipitated. Thus complexes of UO 2 ++ , Th 4+ , Fe 3+ and RuNO 3+ have been precipitated by us, and although the anion has usually been nitrate we have also carried out precipitations from sulphate media. Other anions could also be used since amines extract many acids efficiently (see, for example, Moore 2 ).