Determination of platinum, palladium and rhodium in Pt-catalysts by high performance thin layer chromatography using densitometry

The determination of palladium and platinum in alumina-supported bimetallic Pt-Re, Pd and Pt catalysts at the 0.03 and 0.3% (m/m) levels, respectively, and of rhodium and platinum in platinum sieve catalysts at the 0.04% (m/m) level and in the 4.75–19.75% (m/m) range, respectively, is described. The platinum group metals in fresh or spent catalysts are determined chromatographically using densitometry by forming theirN,N-diethyl-N-benzoylthiourea complexes. The precision of the method, %RSD, is 0.4–3.5, 2.2–6.7, and 4.2–6.0 for Pt, Pd and Rh, respectively. The accuracy was tested using alumina-based and active carbon platinum and palladium standards. The results were also compared with those obtained by FAAS. There was at most 8% difference between the results obtained with these methods, except for one active carbon based Pd standard.