LAUSR

Abstract A set of imino-phenol ligands L1-L8 were synthesized and fully characterized by spectroscopic methods (NMR, FTIR, UV/Vis and MS) with good yields (≥ 60%). Ligands L1-L8 were used for the preparation of copper complexes C1-C8 from their reactions with Cu(OAc)2·H2O in a ligand/Cu(II) molar ratio of 2:1. Then, a set of solvent-extraction (SX) experiments for Cu(II) were performed at room temperature for 60 min at pH 4.5, and L8 exhibited the highest value (75%) for Cu(II) extraction. Cu(II) stripping studies were then performed at 50 °C for 60 min with L1 and L5-L7 at pH 3.0 and L8 at pH since these ligands decompose at lower pH values. Notably, L1 and L6 achieved the best results for the stripping step, yielding 46% and 47% extraction, respectively. On the other hand a set of competitive extraction studies were performed with different divalent metal ions (Cu(II), Co(II), Ni(II) and Mn(II)) using L8 and good extraction values (57-75%) were obtained for all of the metal ions at pH 4.5. Finally, extraction/stripping selectivity experiments were performed with the aforementioned metal ions using L8 and L1. L8 exhibited good selectivity for Cu(II) (75%) in the extraction process at pH 4.5, whereas L1 produced moderate values of selectivity (approximately 60%) for all of the divalent metal ions at pH 3.0 in the stripping process.