Separation and determination of trace amounts of beryllium(II), aluminium(III) and chromium(III) with chromotrope 2C chelates by RP-HPLC

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatographic separation and determination of beryllium(II), aluminium(III) and chromium(III) with chromotrope 2C chelates on a C18-bonded stationary phase is reported. Methanol-water (45:55 v/v) containing 6 x 10(-3)M tetra-n-butylammonium bromide (TBAB) and 2 x 10(-2)M acetate buffer solution (pH 6.0) as mobile phase and with spectrophotometric detection at 530 nm was applied. The method has high sensitivity, the detection limits being 0.2 ppb for beryllium(I), 1 ppb for aluminium(III) and 2 ppb for chromium(III). Under the optimum conditions, most other metal ions did not interfere, e.g. up to 2 mg of Hg(II), Sn(II, IV), Pb(II), Bi(III), Ag(I), Zn(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), 1.5 mg of Fe(II), Co(II), Ni(II), 1.2 mg of Ca(II), Mg(II), Sr(II), Ba(II), 1 mg of Ga(III), In(III), 0.5 mg of Fe(III), 1 mg of Ga(III), In(III), 0.5 mg of Fe(III), 0.4 mg of Th(IV), Zr(IV). The method can be applied to the simultaneous determination of trace amounts of beryllium(II), aluminium(III) and chromium(III), in water, rice, flour and human hair samples.