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.