Study of interfacial kinetics for liquid-liquid systems—II: Intrinsic kinetics of the copper chelation reaction with an oxime-based reagent

Abstract

The interfacial chelation of copper from copper sulfate-sulfuric acid solutions by the commerical oxime extractant LIX65N in toluene is studied using the liquid jet recycle reactor. The intrinsic initial rate of copper chelation by LIX65N is found to be represented in mol. cm −2-sec −1 by the expression R = 1.22 × 10 −8{Cu 2+}[LIX65N] {H +} + 0.0288[LIX65N] where {Cu 2+} and {H +} are the cupric and hydrogen activities. The interfacial rate expression above is determined as free from diffusional contributions by using a numerical solution to model mass transfer with interfacial reaction in the LJRR. The above expression is selected on statistical and physical grounds from a set of models systematically generated from the most probable reaction pathways. The liquid jet technique has been shown to be an effective and accurate (±6% experimental error) technique for the study of liquid-liquid interfacial reactions.