Simultaneous determination of palladium and rhodium using on-line column enrichment and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric detection

Flow injection on-line micro-column pre-concentration was coupled with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) for the simultaneous determination of Rh and Pd in environmental samples. The micro-column contained 1,5-Bis(2-pyridyl)-3-sulphophenyl methylene thiocarbonohydrazide (PSTH) immobilised on an anion-exchange resin (Dowex 1 × 8–200). The sorbent was tested in a micro-column, placed in the auto-sampler arm, at the flow rate 3.1 mL/min. Elution was performed with 2 M HNO₃ and the system was optimised with a 60 s pre-concentration time.