Separation of rhenium by extraction with crown ethers and flow-injection extraction—spectrophotometric determination with Brilliant Green

Abstract

The extraction behavior of perrhenate with crown ethers was studied and methods for the separation and determination of rhenium were developed. The distribution ratio of perrhenate with dicyclohexano-18-crown-6 (DC18C6) increases with increases in the dielectric constant of organic solvents and in the potassium ion concentration of aqueous solution. The molar ratios of crown ether to KReO 4 in the extracted species are probably 1:1 for DC18C6, dibenzo-18-crown-6 and 18-crown-6 and 2:1 for benzo-15-crown-5 and 15-crown-5. Microgram amounts of rhenium were satisfactorily separated from large amounts of molbdenum(VI) by extraction with DC18C6 in 1,2-dichloroethane from 2 M potassium hydroxide solution containing tartrate and by back-extraction with sodium phosphate buffer solution after the addition of a twofold volume of hexane to the organic phase. Rhenium was determined by the flow-injection extraction-photometric method with Brilliant Green. Rhenium was satisfactory determined in molybdenite and other ore samples.