Separation of thorium by anion-exchange chromatography in malic acid media

Summary Systematic studies on the anion-exchange behaviour of thorium in malic acid solution on Amberlite IRA-401 have been carried out. Acids such as HNO₃, HCl, H₂SO₄, HClO₄ and salts such as NH₄Cl, (NH₄)₂SO₄, NaClO₄, NaCl and NaNO₃ have been tested as eluants for thorium, their efficiency being evaluated in terms of their distribution coefficients. HNO₃ is the best eluent for thorium. Methods have been developed for the separation of thorium from several elements in malic acid media using selective adsorption or selective elution. The proposed method is applied to the analysis of thorium in monazite where HClO₄ is a better eluant than HNO₃. The method is simple and the accuracy about ±3%.