Application of Metalfix Chelamine prior to the determination of noble metals by the inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

Metalfix Chelamine chelating resins of two different bead sizes (150–300 and 40–80 μm) were examined and compared regarding their application for sorption of Au, Ir, Pd, Pt, Rh and Ru ions from medium of HCl, HNO3 and mixtures of HCl and HNO3. The quantitative enrichment of Au, Ir, Pd and Pt was established for the resin of 150–300 μm particle size and for solutions acidified with HCl and HNO3 (3:1) up to the concentration of 0.50 mol l−1. In the case of Rh and Ru, the uptake of these metals by the resin was lower than 50%. For the elution, solutions of different reagents, i.e. HCl, HNO3, KCN, KI, KSCN and (NH2)2CS, were studied with respect to the complete release of the analytes retained by the resin. In addition, influence of various base metals, i.e. Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn, on the retention of the noble metals was investigated. Under the selected conditions for the retention and elution of Au, Ir, Pd and Pt, the analytical performance of the proposed pre-concentration procedure was evaluated and it was applied to the determination of these noble metals in anodic sludge sample.