The Use of Algae Chlorella vulgaris Immobilized on Cellex‐T Support for Separation/Preconcentration of Trace Amounts of Platinum and Palladium before GFAAS Determination

Abstract

The ability of green algae Chlorella vulgaris, immobilized on Cellex‐T support, for selective binding of platinum (Pt) and palladium (Pd) from acidic solutions (at pH range 1.5–1.8) has been demonstrated. The use of immobilized algae packed into a microcolumn (150 mg) in a flow mode provides good efficiency and reproducibility of the biosorption process (95.2 ± 0.4% for Pt and 99.3 ± 0.9% for Pd). The presence of seven interfering ions up to their 100 µg mL⁻¹ concentration does not influence Pt and Pd retention on the column. The best efficiency of elution for both metals from the column was obtained with 0.3 mol L⁻¹ thiourea (TU) in 1 mol L⁻¹ hydrochloric acid used as a stripping reagent The detection limits obtained by the optimized method, followed by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometric detection for Pt and Pd, were 0.2 and 0.096 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. The proposed method was applied for matrix separation and determination of Pt and Pd by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) in spiked tap water, wastewater, and grass samples.

Keywords:

• Platinum
• Palladium
• Preconcentration
• Biosorption
• Immobilized algae
• Environmental samples

Acknowledgments

This study was partly supported by grant no 3 T09 A 146 26 from the Polish State for Scientific Research (KBN).