Liquid chromatography of lanthanide chelates of 1-(p-nitrophenyl)ethylenediamine-N,N,N',N' -tetra-acetic acid

Preparation of the chelating agent, 1-(p-nitrophenyl)ethylenediamine-N,N,N',N'-tetra-acetic acid (p-nitrophenylEDTA), is described in detail. Separation of p-nitrophenylEDTA chelates of ytterbium(III), erbium(III), dysprosium(III) and europium(III) has been achieved by reversed-phase ion-pair liquid chromatography. With spectrophotometric detection at 254 nm, linear responses over about four orders of magnitude were achieved with detection limits (S/N = 2) of about 0.5 pmole.