Quantitative separation of calcium from magnesium,aluminium, iron(III) and many other elements by cation-exchange chromatography in methanolic hydrochloric acid on a macroporous resin

Calcium can be separated from Mg, Al, Cu(II), Fe(III), Ga, Zn, Mn(II), Co(II), U(VI) and Ti(IV) by cation-exchange chromatography on a column of AG MP-50 macroporous resin. Sr, Ba, Sc, Y, the lanthanides, Zr, Hf and Th are retained together with calcium. The separation factor for the Ca—Mg pair in 3 M HCl containing 50% methanol is about 20 which is considerably larger than those obtained by other ion-exchange procedures. Separations with the cation-exchange resin are sharp and quantitative. A column containing only 2 g (5.4ml) of resin is sufficient to separate up to 0.2 mmol of calcium from 2 mmol of magnesium and larger amounts of Fe(III), Cu(II) and Zn. On a 10-g column, up to 2.5 mmol of calcium can be separated easily from similar and larger amounts of other elements. Distribution coefficients for calcium and magnesium with variation of cross-linkage and variation of methanol concentration are presented, together with relevant elution curves and results for synthetic mixtures.