Choosing and developing an extraction method
The octanol-water partition coefficient
This parameter is of great interest for the development of an extraction method. It represents the partition coefficient, at equilibrium, of the solute in the presence of a mixture (immiscible) of water and octanol.
The more hydrophobic the compound, the higher its Kow.
This coefficient is related to water solubility but has the advantage of being unitless – it is therefore easier to work with than solubility and allows a simple hydrophobicity scale to be drawn up.