SEPARATION AND DETERMINATION OF TRACE Cu(II), Zn(II), AND Pd(II) AS THEIR TETRAPHENYLPORPHINE CHELATES BY REVERSED-PHASE HIGH PERFORMANCE LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPHY

Abstract

α,β,γδ-Tetraphenylporphine (TPP) was used as a precolumn chelating reagent for reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation and determination of trace Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ and Pd²⁺. Chelating reactions of TPP with Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Pd²⁺ have been optimized in the presence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). TPP and its metal chelates were successfully separated on a Nucleosil C₁₈ column (150×4.6 mm I.D., 5 μm) with acetone-acetonitrile (37.5: 62.5, v/v) as mobile phase.

The detection limits (S/N=2) were 3.2×10⁻¹¹ g, 2.2×10⁻¹¹ g and 2.4×10⁻¹⁰ g for Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, and Pd²⁺, respectively. The proposed method was applied to the simultaneous determination of Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺ in tea water and the results were in agreement with the values obtained by an atomic absorption spectrophotometric method.

Acknowledgments