Extractive Separation of Osmium and Ruthenium from Thiocyanate Media

Abstract
The sequential separation of osmium and ruthenium as thiocyanate complexes by extraction into mesityl oxide and cyclohexanone is described. The conditions for their re-extraction prior to determination from the respective organic layers have been established. Alternatively, the amounts of osmium and ruthenium were established spectrophotometrically from the coloured mesityl oxide and cyclohexanone layers respectively. The developed procedure has been applied to the separation of these metals present in synthetic samples of various minnerals.