Acid-base extraction
Acid-base extraction is a procedure using sequential liquid–liquid extractions to purify acids and bases from mixtures based on their chemical properties.
Acid-base extraction is routinely performed during the work-up after chemical syntheses and for the isolation of compounds and natural products like alkaloids from crude extracts. The product is largely free of neutral and acidic or basic impurities. It is not possible to separate chemically similar acids or bases using this simple method.
The fundamental theory behind this technique is that salts, which are ionic, tend to be water-soluble while neutral molecules tend not to be.
The addition of an acid to a mixture of an organic base and acid will result in the acid remaining uncharged, while the base will be protonated to form a salt. If the organic acid, such as a carboxylic acid, is sufficiently strong, its self-ionization can be suppressed by the added acid.
Conversely, the addition of a base to a mixture of an organic acid and base will result in the base remaining uncharged, while the acid is deprotonated to give the corresponding salt. Once again, the self-ionization of a strong base is suppressed by the added base.
The acid-base extraction procedure can also be used to separate very weak acids from stronger acids and very weak bases from stronger bases, as long as the difference of their pKa (or pKb) constants is large enough. For example:
Usually the pH is adjusted to a value roughly between the pKa (or pKb) constants of the compounds to be separated. Weak acids like citric acid, phosphoric acid, or diluted sulfuric acid are used for moderately acidic pH values, and hydrochloric acid or more concentrated sulfuric acid is used for strongly acidic pH values. Similarly, weak bases like ammonia or sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3) are used for moderately basic pH values while stronger bases like potassium carbonate (K2CO3) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) are used for strongly alkaline conditions.
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