‫ﷲِ اﻟﺮﱠﺣْ ﻤَﻦِ اﻟﺮﱠﺣِ ﯿﻢ‬

‫ﺑِﺴْﻢِ ﱠ‬
In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious and The Most Merciful

LECTURE 07-CH 419

Separation by Extraction:
Distribution Law

Dr. Muhammad Azeem Akbar Rana

Department of Chemistry
School of Science
University of Management and Technology, Lahore
 Separation by Extraction
• Solvent extraction is a method to separate
compounds or metal complexes, based on their
relative solubilities in two different immiscible
liquids, usually water and an organic solvent.
• The extent to which solutes, both inorganic and
organic, distribute themselves between two
immiscible liquids differs enormously, and these
differences have been used to separate chemical
species by the phenomenon of Extraction.
• It is a method of quantitative separation of
compounds.
 Liquid-liquid Extraction
• Commonly used method
• Depends on solubility properties of components.
• So ideally, the extracting solvent should be similar to the
solute.
• Immiscible liquids are ones that separate into layers when
mixed up together. These liquids are usually water and an
organic solvent.
• When extracting solvent is stirred with solution
containing solute then solute from original solvent gets
transferred in to an extracting solvent.
• When stirring is stopped extracting solvent form separate
layer and now it contains solute of interest.
 Light phase Impurities

Solute

Extractant

Original
solvent

Heavy phase
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• Process of dissolved substance
transferring from one phase to
another phase is based on
partition between two phases of
liquids.

Two phase system, hydrophobic (top) and Separating funnel is mostly

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used
in a liquid–liquid extraction.
hydrophilic (bottom)
 Qualities of the Solvent
• Immiscible with other solvent.
• It should readily dissolve the compound to be
extracted.
• It should dissolve little or none of the unwanted
compounds / impurities.
• Easily separated from the compound.
• Should not undergo any reaction with the
compounds.
• The boiling point of the solvent should be low
enough (well below the melting point of the
solute) such that it can be evaporated easily after
collection.
 Comparison With Other Methods
• Compared with other separation methods, it gives
a better separation, a higher degree of selectivity
and faster mass transfer than the ion exchange
method.
• Compared with distillation, solvent extraction has
advantages, such as low energy consumption,
large production capacity, fast action, easy
continuous operation, and ease of automation.
 Extraction Principles:
Nernst's Distribution Law
• The partition of a solute between two immiscible
phases is an equilibrium process that is governed
by the distribution law.
• If the solute species A is allowed to distribute
itself between water and an organic phase, the
resulting equilibrium may be written as
Аaq ↔ Аor

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 Distribution Coefficient
• When a solution is placed in a separatory funnel and
shaken with an immiscible solvent, solutes often dissolve
in part into both layers.
• The components are said to "partition“ between the two
layers, or "distribute themselves“ between the two layers.
• When equilibrium has established, the ratio of
concentration of solute in each layer is constant for each
system, and this can be represented by a value K
• K is called the partition coefficient or distribution
coefficient.
• KD = Conc. in organic phase/Conc. in aqueous phase
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 Distribution Coefficient
• KD = Conc. in organic phase/Conc. in aqueous phase
• Under dissolution equilibrium concentration of
compound A in aqueous phase and organic concentration
phase is definite .
• From equilibrium coefficient it is clear that some
quantity of a compound will remain unextracted in
aqueous phase.
• In single extraction, quantitative separation of a
compound from aqueous phase into organic phase is not
possible.
• Thus for quantitative extraction of a compound from
aqueous phase in to organic phase, aqueous phase must
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be extracted again or number of times.
Distribution Coefficient

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 Lecture Review
Q1: What is solvent extraction?
Ans: A method to separate compounds or metal complexes, based on their relative
solubilities in two different immiscible liquids, usually water and an organic solvent.
Q2: What are immiscible liquids?
Ans: Immiscible liquids are ones that separate into layers when mixed up together
Q3: How the extracting solvent should interact with impurities?
Ans: It should dissolve little or none of the unwanted compounds / impurities.
Q4: How we can compare the efficiency of the solvent extract with distillation method?
Ans: Compared with distillation, solvent extraction has advantages, such as low energy
consumption, large production capacity, fast action, easy continuous operation, and ease of
automation.
Q5: Can we completely extract a solute from its aqueous solution?
Ans: The partition of a solute between two immiscible phases is an equilibrium process that
is governed by the distribution law. From equilibrium coefficient it is clear that some quantity of
a compound will remain unextracted in aqueous phase. Therefore, to extract the maximum
quantity of the solute multiple extractions are applied.
Q6: What are applications of solvent extraction?
Ans: Solvent extraction is used in the processing of perfumes, vegetable oil, biodiesel, and
to recover plutonium
Thousand Dreams
One Place