Affinity partitioning of metal ions in aqueous polyethylene glycol/salt two-phase systems with PEG-Modified chelators

The systematic partitioning of metal ions in the presence of polyethylene glycol (PEG) chelate derivatives in PEG/salt two-phase systems is described. Results show that the partitioning is enhanced significantly, and this effect is apparently based on the characteristics of binding of the chelate and the nature of the metal ion in addition to the effect of the attached PEG molecule. Previous work with PEG-iminodiacetic acid has been extended with the chelating derivatives PEG-TED [tris(carboxymethyl)ethylene diamine], PEG-TREN-Cm [carboxymethylated-tris(2-aminoethyl)amine], and PEG-ASP (aspartic acid). Their effectiveness to selectively partition the metal ions is demonstrated and discussed. The partition experiments were performed using two-phase systems of PEG (8000 MW), sodium sulfate, the PEG-chelating derivatives, and different concentrations of copper, nickel, and cobalt as model metal ions. Partition coefficients (ratio of top to bottom metal concentrations) greater than 1 were obtained for the metal ions with all the chelating derivatives tested. Selective enhancement of partitioning was observed in all cases. Based on the experimental results and theoretical principles, the method shows potential as an alternative mode to remove efficiently and selectively metal ions from solutions using aqueous two-phase systems and PEG-chelate derivatives.