Liquid-Liquid Extraction of Zinc with High-Molecular-Weight Amines from Alkaline Cyanide Solutions

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Abstract
Quaternary amines are unique in their ability to extract metal cyanides from highly alkaline solutions. Zinc cyanide extracts essentially quantitatively at both the subnanogram and macro levels. Regeneration of the amine solvent is achieved by stripping the zinc with sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, or alkaline or acidic formaldehyde solutions. Because they readily extract free cyanide as well as anionic metal cyano complexes, the high-molecular-weight quaternary amines show considerable promise for industrial pollution abatement applications.