Precipitation from homogeneous solution of cations released from ETDA complexes

The suitability of EDTA complexes for use in precipitation of certain cations from homogeneous solution under various experimental conditions can be predicted from a knowledge of the solubility product of the compound to be precipitated and the complex stability constant. A brief review of previous work in the field of masking effectiveness is given. An examination of factors influencing precipitation has been carried out. It is shown that a simple ratio can be used for predicting the likelihood of precipitation at various pH values and that more rigorous theoretical approaches are not necessarily more advantageous.