Chromatography of Uranium on High-Performance Ion Exchangers

Abstract

The potential of high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) for the determination of U(VI) in ground waters and urine has been examined under a variety of HPLC experimental conditions. Conventional cross-linked and bonded-phase ion exchangers, both cation and anion, were studied with aqueous mobile phases containing tartrate, citrate, or α-hydroxyisobutyrate. The best chromatography was obtained on bonded-phase cation exchangers with an α-hydroxyisobutyrate eluent. The metal ions were detected either by visible spectrophotometry after a post-column reaction with a complexing reagent, or with a polarographic detector. Dectection after post-column reaction gave the best sensitivity; the detection limit (2 × baseline noise was 6 ng or 60 ng.ml^?1 for 100 μl samples. In-line trace enrichment was used to decrease detection limits and linear calibration curves were observed in the ranges studied; 0.5 to 50 ng.mL^?1 for ground waters and 25 to 400 ng.mL^?1 for artificial urine.