Quantitative separation of zinc traces from cadmium matrices by solid-phase extraction with polyurethane foam.

A system for separation of zinc traces from large amounts of cadmium is proposed in this paper. It is based on the solid-phase extraction of the zinc in the form of thiocyanate complexes by the polyurethane foam. The following parameters were studied: effect of pH and of the thiocyanate concentration on the zinc extraction, shaking time required for quantitative extraction, amount of PU foam necessary for complete extraction, conditions for the separation of zinc from cadmium, influence of other cations and anions on the zinc sorption by PU foam, and required conditions for back extraction of zinc from the PU foam. The results show that zinc traces can be separated from large amounts of cadmium at pH 3.0+/-0.50, with the range of thiocyanate concentration from 0.15 to 0.20 mol l(-1), and the shaking time of 5 min. The back extraction of zinc can be done by shaking it with water for 10 min. Calcium, barium, strontium, magnesium, aluminum, nickel and iron(II) are efficiently separated. Iron(III), copper(II) and cobalt(II) are extracted simultaneously with zinc, but the iron reduction with ascorbic acid and the use of citrate to mask copper(II) and cobalt(II) increase the selectivity of the zinc extraction. The anions nitrate, chloride, sulfate, acetate, thiosulphate, tartarate, oxalate, fluoride, citrate, and carbonate do not affect the zinc extraction. Phosphate and EDTA must be absent. The method proposed was applied to determine zinc in cadmium salts using 4-(2-pyridylazo)-resorcinol (PAR) as a spectrophotometric reagent. The result achieved did not show significant difference in the accuracy and precision (95% confidence level) with those obtained by ICP-AES analysis.

Spectrophotometric determination of nickel in copper-base alloy with 2-(2-thiazolylazo)-p-cresol.

A spectrophotometric method for determination of nickel in copper-base alloy with 2-(2-thiazolylazo)-p-cresol (TAC) is described. The interferences of foreign ions can be eliminated by masking with a mixture of sodium tartrate and sodium thiosulphate. The nickel-TAC complex has low solubility in water, but is soluble in aqueous ethanol. Beer's law is obeyed for 20-70mug of nickel in 50 ml of solution, at pH 5.7. The molar absorptivity at 580 nm is 2.6 x 10(4)l.mole(-1).cm(-1). The method has been applied successfully to determination of nickel in reference samples.