Rapid Chromatographic Separation of Heavy Metal Cations on Bismuth Silicate Layer

The chromatographic behavior of various heavy metal ions have been studied by bismuth silicate layer as the stationary phase, with mobile phase system containing formic acid. The effect of protic and aprotic organic modifiers (methanol, ethanol, acetone, acetonitrile, DMSO and dioxane) and surfactant (SDS, BAC and Tween 80) on the retention behavior of the metal cations was examined. A novel mobile phase system comprising of 0.1M HCOOH and 1 M HCOONa in volume ratio 7:3 was identified as the best mobile phase for rapid separation and identification of mixtures of Cu2+, Cd2+ and Hg2+.Semiquantitative determination of Ni2+, Pb2+ and Fe3+by spot area measurement was attempted. The proposed method was successfully applied for identification and separation of copper, cadmium and mercury from river water, industrial waste water as well as from hydroxide sludge samples.

Author(s): Sarang S. Dhote, Lata Deshmukh and L. Paliwal

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