Substoichiometric extraction of traces of gold and palladium

Several systems for extracting palladium at concentrations ranging from 10-4 to 10-6M/l were studied. Extraction by dithizone is limited by the transformation of the primary complex into a secondary complex which takes place at concentrations around 10-6M. This transformation has been demonstrated kinetically. Dimethylglyoxime is an interesting reagent in substoichiometry, in spite of its comparatively low extraction constant. Various complexes which are formed in a highly chlorinated medium have been proposed. Use of copper diethyldithiocarbamate is limited principally by its stability in presence of chlorine ions. The kinetic formation of palladium diethyldithiocarbamate has been studied with greater precision. A direct determination of 100μg of palladium in a copper matrix without preliminary separation has given results comparable in every way with those of other methods. In the case of gold (III) the constants of formation with the diethyldithiocarbamate ion have been determined by an iterative method of calculation, using the influence curves of interfering metals. Finally conditions for an automatization of the substoichiometric extraction, as well as its possibilities for gold determination in the range 200-20ppm, were proposed