Recovery of tantalum from synthetic sulfuric leach solutions by solvent extraction with phosphonate functionalized ionic liquids

A series of phosphonate-functionalized task-specific ionic liquids (TSILs) have been synthesized and studied for selective extraction of tantalum from a sulfuric acid medium. The results described here show that high distribution coefficient values can be achieved for the selective separation of tantalum (Ta). Such a system can be used as an alternative to TBP for the separation and purification of tantalum by solvent extraction.