Separation of Selected Transition Metal Ions and Divalent Metal Ions by HPLC Using UV-VIS Detection

Abstract

The use of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, disodium salt, (pH 3-5) has been investigated as an eluant for the separation and detection of nanogram levels of selected divalent and trivalent metal ions. The effect of pH and eluant concentration upon the retention times and resolution of the system are given and the ability to alter the eluant characteristics to optimize the chromatographic results in different situations will be discussed. The method is less complicated than the method frequently used for transition metal ion determinations which uses a post-column derivitization reagent. This method is applicable to a wider range of metal ions and provides detection limits which are generally within two orders of magnitude of the post-column derivitization method.