This crystalline, colorless solid is a chelator and sometimes used in the analysis of samples containing transition metal ions, with which it often forms brightly coloured coordination complexes.
It typically forms charge-neutral complexes with divalent metal ions.
Salicylaldoxime can be used to selectively precipitate metal ions for gravimetric determination.
It forms a greenish-yellow precipitate with copper at a pH of 2.6 in the presence of acetic acid.
In one application of hydrometallurgy, Cu2+ is extracted into organic solvents as its saloxime complex.