Review: The Design of Ligands for the Transport of Metal Salts in Extractive Metallurgy

Abstract

Anion recognition is key to the development of reagents that can selectively transport metal salts in extractive metallurgy. This review outlines flowsheets that require such reagents and considers how anion receptors could be used to transfer base metal salts into water-immiscible media in solvent extraction processes. Particular attention is paid to the extraction of sulfate because there is a need to develop systems for the unit operations of concentration and separation to process sulfate streams.