Specificity of noble metals dynamic sorption preconcentration on reversed-phase sorbents

• StrataX and StrataX-AW for PGMs’ preconcentration were used for the first time.
• Steric structure of chlorocomplexes plays critical role in the sorption mechanism.
• The conditions of quantitative and reversible sorption of Ir on StrataX-AW were found.
• The quantitative and reversible schemes for Pd, Pt, Au and Ir are developed.

The reversible sorption preconcentration of noble metals (NMs) using different schemes “sorbent–reagent–eluent” was investigated. The extraction of Au, Pd, Pt, Ir, Rh and Ru chlorocomplexes from hydrochloric acid solutions on hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 in the form of ion associates with tributylamine (TBA) and 4-(n-octyl)diethylenetriamine (ODETA) was investigated. It was found that Pd, Pt and Au were quantitatively and reversibly extracted using TBA on hyper-crosslinked polysterene; the appropriate eluent for desorption was 1 M solution of HCl in ethanol. Ir, Rh and Ru under these conditions were not sorbed quantitatively. It was found that sorbent hydrophobicity is not the main characteristic that defines the efficiency of sorption of a particular NM ion associate. Different efficiencies of hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 for sorption of square-planar chlorcomplexes of Pt, Pd and Au and octahedral complexes of Ir, Rh and Ru were found. For the first time, the sorbents with their own N-atoms – StrataX and StrataX-AW – were used for the sorption of Ir, Rh and Ru. Using these sorbents, the sorption of Ir was increased up to 95%, and the sorption of Ru and Rh was increased to about 40%. We can explain these results by nonspecific interaction of chlorcomplexes of Ir, Rh and Ru with ethylenediamine groups of the sorbent. Weak bases with large anions may be applied for desorption of Ir, Rh and Ru. Two schemes of dynamic sorption preconcentration of NMs from hydrochloric acid solutions were proposed – hyper-crosslinked polysterene MN-200 for the determination of Au, Pd, Pt, and StrataX-AW for Ir, Rh and Ru.

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