Synergic extraction of lanthanoids(III) with thenoyl trifluoroacetone and terpyridine

The synergic extraction of trivalent lanthanoids (Ln: La, Nd, Sm, Eu, Yb and Lu) with 2-thenoyltrifluoroacetone (Htta) and 2,26, 2-terpyridine (tpy) into benzene has been studied. The partition coefficient (P_s) of tpy was obtained experimentally in order to calculate the equilibrium concentration of tpy in the organic phase. From the slope analysis, it was shown that these lanthanoids were extracted as Ln(tta)₃(tpy). The adduct formation constant (_s,1) and the synergic extraction constant were obtained for each lanthanoid. The (_s,1) decreases with increasing atomic number of lanthanoids and the trend of (_s,1) is compared with that for bidentate and unidentate heterocyclic amines.