Currently,
it is difficult to obtain high-purity titanium from
ilmenite to produce titanium dioxide (TiO2). More severely,
it causes serious environmental pollution. In this paper, a new hydrophobic
deep eutectic solvent (HDES), a combination of decanol (DEO) as a
hydrogen bond donor (HBD) with N,N-diisooctylacetamide (DOA) as a hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA), for
the environmentally friendly recovery of Ti(IV) from ilmenite HCl
leachate is proposed. The prepared HDES had low water cross-contamination,
low viscosity, and sufficient density difference of HDES–water.
The formation mechanism of HDES had been thoroughly revealed. In the
ilmenite HCl leachate, the extraction effect of HDES on all metal
ions had been studied in detail. Finally, rutile TiO2 and
Fe2O3 were successfully synthesized using the
obtained solutions as raw materials. The extraction mechanism characterized
by Fourier transform infrared and 1H NMR spectroscopy was
consistent with that determined by density functional theory (DFT)
calculations. The slope method was used to study the effects of HBD,
HBA, H+, Cl–, and H2O on the
extraction of metal ions by HDES. In addition, the complex structures
of HDES formed in the HCl solution are given. This article may thus
help improve the sustainable utilization of some related metal ions
from the real ore.