Polystyrene microcapsules containing Aliquat 336 as a novel packing material for separation of metal ions

The widespread use of chromatography is mainly because of the development of high-performance packing materials and the simultaneous determination of many components in a sample. In this study, polystyrene microcapsules containing Aliquat 336 have been prepared by solvent evaporation method and the chromatographic separation of heavy metal ions with the microcapsules as a new packing material was investigated using Cr(VI), Cd(II) and Zn(II) as solutes. The experimental results show that the base-line separation of Cr(VI)/Cd(II) and Cr(VI)/Zn(II) could be reached at pH = 2.0 and the peaks are sharp and symmetrical at low pH values. The retention time of each metal keeps constant at same mobile phase conditions and the peak area decreases in direct ratio as the concentration of injection decreases. A stability experiment shows that the solvent microcapsules have a sufficient durability for long-term processing. They also have a sufficient rigidity for liquid chromatography operation.