Abstract
The separation of rare earth metal ions by capillary electrophoresis in the presence of imidazole as the UV-absorbing background electrolyte, and lactic acid or α-hydroxyisobutyric acid (α-HIBA) as the complexing agent, with indirect UV absorbance detection was investigated. The effects of various acids in the running buffer, pH of buffer and the concentration of complexing agent on the separation were examined. It was observed that the acid used for adjusting the pH of the buffer was another important factor, besides the concentration of the complexing agent that affects the separation of rare earth metal ions. The results showed that under a positive voltage of 10.0 kV, fourteen rare earth metal ions could be baseline separated within 9 minutes using 0.02 mol/1 imidazole containing 8x10−3 mol/1 α-HIBA at pH 3.4 adjusted with hydrochloric acid. The detection limits of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm and Tb were 5x10−6 mol/1. The contents of La, Ce, Pr, Nd and Sm in real samples from Gansu Rare Earth Company were determined quantitatively using Tb (III) as an internal standard. The results were consistent with those of ICP.
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