The extraction of beryllium from aqueous
solution by long-chain tertiary amines has been observed in the presence of
ligands giving rise to anionic complexes. The nature of the oxalate complex
extracted by solutions of tri-iso-octylamine in chloroform has been studied in
detail and the species formed in the organic phase were shown to have the
composition Be(C2O4)2.{NH(i-C8H15)3}2.
The complexes formed in aqueous solution
between beryllium and several anionic complexing agents have been examined by
the method of pH-titration. Conditional stability constants have been obtained
for the complexes formed with oxalic, malonic, maleic, succinic, phthalic, and
salicylic acids. Differences in their extractabilities can be explained
semiquantitatively with the help of the stability constants and the acid
association constants of the complexing agents.
