Separation of molybdenum(VI) from other elements by solvent extraction with dibenzo-18-crown-6 from hydrochloric acid medium

DB-18-C6 was used for the extractive separation analysis of molybdenum(VI) from a range of other elements. Molybdenum(VI) was quantitatively extracted from 8M hydrochloric acid with 0.01M DB-18-C6 in nitrobenzene. It was stripped from the organic phase with 2M nitric acid and determined spectrophotometrically with Tiron at 390 nm. Molybdenum was separated from a large number of elements in binary mixtures, the tolerance limit for most elements being very high. Selective extraction of molybdenum permits its separation from barium, thorium, cesium, rubidium, strontium, lanthanum, chromium(III) and cerium(III). The method was extended for the analysis of molybdenum in a soil sample.