metals Article Study on the Extraction and Separation of Zinc, Cobalt, and Nickel Using Ionquest 801, Cyanex 272, and Their Mixtures Wensen Liu 1,2,3, Jian Zhang 3,4,5, Zhenya Xu 6, Jie Liang 1,* and Zhaowu Zhu 2,3,4,* 1 School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China;
[email protected] 2 Innovation Academy for Green Manufacture, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 3 National Engineering Laboratory for Hydrometallurgical Cleaner Production Technology, Beijing 100190, China;
[email protected] 4 Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China 5 School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 6 The College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100028, China;
[email protected] * Correspondence:
[email protected] (J.L.);
[email protected] (Z.Z.) Abstract: Both Cyanex 272 (bis (2,4,4-trimethylpentyl) phosphinic acid) and Ionquest 801 (2-ethylhexyl phosphonic acid mono-2-ethylhexyl ester) are commonly used for metal extraction and separation, particularly for zinc, cobalt, and nickel, which are often found together in processing solutions. Detailed metal extractions of zinc, cobalt, and nickel were studied in this paper using Cya-nex 272, Ionquest 801, and their mixtures. It was found that they performed very similarly in zinc selectivity over cobalt. Cyanex 272 performed much better than Ionquest 801 in cobalt separation from nickel. Citation: Liu, W.; Zhang, J.; Xu, Z.; However, very good separation of them was also obtained with Ionquest 801 at its low concentration Liang, J.; Zhu, Z.