The ion-pair solvent extraction of benzene- and naphthalene-carboxylic acids has been investigated as a model study for the separation of coal oxidation products, which are formed by treatment with alkaline solutions at high temperatures. It was possible that benzene- and naphthalene-dicarboxylic acids are extracted into several types of organic solvents with quaternary ammonium ions. The extraction equilibrium constants (K-ex) for benzoic acid, 1,2-benzenedicarboxylic acid, 1,3-benzenedicarboxylic acid, 1-naphthoic acid, 2-naphthoic acid, 2,3-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid, and 2,6-naphthalenedicarboxylic acid into chloroform were determined at 20 degrees C. The difference of K-ex among the aromatic acids was sufficiently large for designing a separation method for these aromatic acids. It was unexpected that the extraction of dicarboxylic acids was slower than that of monocarboxylic acids, although the ion-pair formation of aromatic carboxylate ion with quaternary ammonium ion is normally considered as a diffusion control reaction in aqueous phase. Thus, this fact suggests that the phase transfer of the ion-pair from aqueous to organic phase is the rate-determining step. Liner-free-energy relationship was observed for the monocarboxylic acids using different quaternary ammonium salts while that was ambiguous for the dicarboxylic acids. This is due to the steric influence of the counter ions for the magnitude of K-ex..