Salicylaldoxime is an

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. T ...

described by the formula C₆H₄CH=NOH-2-OH. It is the

oxime In organic chemistry, an oxime is a organic compound belonging to the imines, with the general formula , where R is an organic side-chain and R’ may be hydrogen, forming an aldoxime, or another organic group, forming a ketoxime. O-substituted ...

salicylaldehyde Salicylic aldehyde (2-hydroxybenzaldehyde) is the organic compound with the formula (C7 H6 O2) C6H4CHO-2-OH. Along with 3-hydroxybenzaldehyde and 4-hydroxybenzaldehyde, it is one of the three isomers of hydroxybenzaldehyde. This colorless oily ...

. This crystalline, colorless solid is a

chelator Chelation is a type of bonding of ions and molecules to metal ions. It involves the formation or presence of two or more separate coordinate bonds between a polydentate (multiple bonded) ligand and a single central metal atom. These ligands are ...

and sometimes used in the analysis of samples containing

transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. They are the elements that ca ...

ion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...

s, with which it often forms brightly coloured

coordination complex A coordination complex consists of a central atom or ion, which is usually metallic and is called the ''coordination centre'', and a surrounding array of bound molecules or ions, that are in turn known as '' ligands'' or complexing agents. ...

es.

Reactions

Salicylaldoxime is the conjugate acid of a bidentate ligand: :2 C₆H₄CH=NOH-2-OH + Cu²⁺ → Cu(C₆H₄CH=NOH-2-O)₂ + 2 H⁺ In highly acidic media, the ligand decomplexes and the metal aqua complex is liberated. In this way the ligand is used as a recyclable extractant. It typically forms charge-neutral complexes with divalent metal ions.

Analytical chemistry

In the era when metals were analysed by

spectrophotometry Spectrophotometry is a branch of electromagnetic spectroscopy concerned with the quantitative measurement of the reflection or transmission properties of a material as a function of wavelength. Spectrophotometry uses photometers, known as sp ...

, many chelating

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule ( functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's elec ...

s were developed that selectively formed brightly coloured complexes with particular metal ions. This methodology has been eclipsed with the introduction of

inductively coupled plasma An inductively coupled plasma (ICP) or transformer coupled plasma (TCP) is a type of plasma source in which the energy is supplied by electric currents which are produced by electromagnetic induction, that is, by time-varying magnetic fields. Ope ...

methodology. Salicylaldoxime can be used to selectively

precipitate In an aqueous solution, precipitation is the process of transforming a dissolved substance into an insoluble solid from a super-saturated solution. The solid formed is called the precipitate. In case of an inorganic chemical reaction leading ...

metal ions for gravimetric determination. It forms a greenish-yellow precipitate with copper at a pH of 2.6 in the presence of acetic acid. Under these conditions, this is the only metal that precipitates; at pH 3.3,

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

also precipitates. Iron (III) will interfere. It has been used as an ionophore in

ion selective electrode An ion-selective electrode (ISE), also known as a specific ion electrode (SIE), is a transducer (or sensor) that converts the activity of a specific ion dissolved in a solution into an electrical potential. The voltage is theoretically dependent ...

s, with good response to Pb²⁺ and Ni²⁺. Cu(Salox)2

Extraction of metals

Saloximes are used in the extraction and separation of metals from their ores. In one application of

hydrometallurgy Hydrometallurgy is a technique within the field of extractive metallurgy, the obtaining of metals from their ores. Hydrometallurgy involve the use of aqueous solutions for the recovery of metals from ores, concentrates, and recycled or residual m ...

, Cu²⁺ is extracted into organic solvents as its saloxime complex.Peter A. Tasker, Christine C. Tong, Arjan N. Westra "Co-extraction of cations and anions in base metal recovery" Coordination Chemistry Reviews 2007, vol. 251, pp. 1868–1877. {{doi, 10.1016/j.ccr.2007.03.014

External links

Chemical data at NIST Chemistry WebBook

References

Phenols Analytical chemistry Aldoximes