Application of Anion Exchange Resin for the Separation of Metals in Tert-butyl Alcohol-Water-Formic Acid Medium

Abstract

The use of tertiary butyl alcohol in admixture with formic acid for the selective elution of cations on the ion exchange resin Amberlite IRA-420 in Cl- form is investigated. The elution technique was coupled with absorption spectrometry and atomic absorption spectrophotometry. The distribution coefficients of metal ions were measured in tertiary butyl alcohol -water-formic acid mixture. By applying distribution co-efficient data, the metals from the mixtures have been separated one after another by eluting with tertiary butyl alcohol-water-formic acid solution of different compositions. The average recovery for all separations (n = 18) was within 94.6 – 98.2 % and the standard deviation for all data was ± 0.96. The developed analytical methodology was successfully applied for the separation and quantification of metal ions in the microgram range from the real samples collecting from natural water and industrial effluents using UV-Visible and AAS techniques.