Liquid chromatographic determination of chelates of cobalt (II), copper (II) and iron (II) with 2-thiophonaldehyde-4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone

Summary A new chelating reagent 2-thiophenaldehyde-4-phenyl-3-thiosemicarbazone (TAPT) has been examined for high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separations of cobalt (II), copper(II) and iron (II) or cobalt (II), nickel (II), iron (II), copper (II) and mercury (II) as metal chelates on a C₁₈, 5μm column (250×4 mm i.d.) The chelates were eluted isocratically with methanol: acetonitrile: water containing sodium acetate and tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBA), and detected at 254 nm. A solvent extraction procedure was developed for simultaneous determination of the metals with detection limits within 0.02–2.5 μ g.mL⁻¹. The method was applied to the determination of copper, cobalt and iron in natural waters.