Simultaneous determination of alkali,alkaline earth and transition metal elements in uranium and thorium based nuclear fuel materials by single column ion chromatography

A single-column ion chromatography (SCIC) for the simultaneous determination of alkali, alkaline earth and transition metal elements in UO₂, ThO₂ powders and sintered (Th, U) O₂ pellet is described in this paper. Metrosep cation 1-2 analytical column containing poly butadiene-maleic acid (PBDMA) coated silica has been applied to the ion chromatographic separation of 12 cations (copper, lithium, sodium, ammonium, nickel, potassium, zinc, cobalt, manganese, magnesium, calcium and strontium) using an isocratic elution with tartaric acid and oxalic acid as mobile phase with non-suppressed conductivity detection. Mobile phase composition was optimized to 1 mM tartaric acid and 0.75 mM oxalic acid for the baseline separation of 12 cations. The calibration plots were linear in the range of 0.05–40 mg L⁻¹ with regression coefficients better than 0.998. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) of the retention time, peak area and peak height were less than 1, 2.8 and 3.0%, respectively. The recoveries of the spiked samples for the cations were 94–110%. The method developed was validated by comparison with certified standards of UO₂ and ThO₂ powders.