Organic acid solutions in the chromatography of inorganic ions

Summary We present a study of the chromatographic behaviour of sixty ions on thin layers of cellulose, employing as eluents aqueous solutions of tartrate, at various molarities (from 0.1 to 1.0 mol dm^–3 and pH values (from 2.0 to 10.0 obtained with aqueous ammonia). The ions migrate, whether they are complexed with the tartrate or not, with high R_F values and are not influenced by variation of the tartrate concentration. The pH variations, owing to the formation of partial hydrolysis or precipitation products or possibly ammonia complexes, have a greater effect on the rate of ion migration and cause a decrease in the R_F values. We show interesting separations obtained with these eluents.This work has been in part supported by C.N.R. of Italy