ABSTRACT
The degradation process that takes place at room temperature when bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)monothiophosphinic acid (R2P(S)OH), bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)dithiophosphinic acid (R2P(S)SH) and tris(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphine sulfide (R3PS) are in contact with 5 M HNO3 has been studied by FT-Infrared, FT-Raman spectroscopy and by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS). An exposure period of ten days of the rough reagents to 5 M HNO3 causes complete oxidation of the compounds. This process mainly leads to the formation of nitrogen dioxide, elemental sulfur and the oxo-analogues of the reagents. For dilute solutions of the reagents it was observed that after 15 min of contact with phase-shaking, R2P(S)OH and R3PS are completely oxidized to yield R2P(O)OH and R3PO, respectively, whereas for R2P(S)SH, the oxidation process is less severe, because the dithioacid is still present in the oxidized mixture, the oxidation products being R2P(S)OH and R2P(O)OH.
ABSTRACT
The composition of the commercial reagent Cyanex 302 was investigated by GC-MS. Mass spectrometric studies allowed us to confirm that bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)monothiophosphinic acid is the major compound and that a considerable amount of tris(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphine oxide is also present. The study also revealed that the extractant has three minor components. These were identified as bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphinic acid, bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)phosphine oxide and bis(2,4,4-trimethylpentyl)dithiophosphinic acid. The mass spectra of these compounds are discussed and some fragmentation processes are postulated.
