Study of isotope effect upon lithium iodide complexation with benzo-15-crown-5 in water–chloroform extraction system

Extraction characteristics of chloroform–water system in lithium iodide extraction with benzo-15-crown-5 (B15C5) were studied. The complexation of the crown ether with LiI in organic phase was shown by IR spectroscopy. Isotope effect multiplication was performed by extraction chromatography technique. The magnitude of isotope separation factor (α) for ⁶Li-⁷Li pair was 1.017. The light lithium isotope is concentrated in organic phase.