Electrochromatography of Metal Ions on Zirconium(IV) Phosphoantimonate Papers: Quantitative Separation of Platinum(IV) from Platinum Group and Other Metal Ions

Abstract

Zirconium (IV) phosphoantimonate impregnated papers have been used to study the electrochromatographic behaviour of 29 metal ions in buffers of weak organic acids with their corresponding ammonium salts as background electrolytes at fixed voltage and time intervals. As a result of these investigations, the variation in the average mobility of metal ions with the ionisation constants of the organic acids used in buffers and other parameters such as atomic numbers and charge on the metal ions has been studied. On the basis of the differential mobilites of the metal ions, which depends on the ion exchange properties of Zr(IV) phosphoantimonate and the nature of the complexes formed with the electrolytes, some binary, ternary and quarternary separation have been achieved. Besides microgram separations (25 μg-100 μg) of Pt(TV) from Pt group and other metal ions have also been achieved.