ABSTRACT
JAN RYDBERG* Chalmers University of Technology, Göteborg, Sweden
GREGORY R.CHOPPIN* Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida, U.S.A.
CLAUDE MUSIKAS* Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique, Paris, France
TATSUYA SEKINE† Science University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
4.1INTRODUCTION
The ability of a solute (inorganic or organic) to distribute itself between an aqueous solution and an immiscible organic solvent has long been applied to separation and purification of solutes either by extraction into the organic phase, leaving undesirable substances in the aqueous phase; or by extraction of the undesirable substances into the organic phase, leaving the desirable solute in the aqueous phase. The properties of the organic solvent, described in Chapter 2, require that the dissolved species be electrically neutral. Species that prefer the organic phase (e.g., most organic compounds) are said to be lipophilic (“liking fat”) or hydrophobic (“disliking water”), while the species that prefer water (e.g., electrolytes) are said to be hydrophilic (“liking water”), or lipophobic (“disliking fat”). Because of this, a hydrophilic inorganic solute must be rendered hydrophobic and lipophilic in order to enter the organic phase.
