Extractive-chromatographic separation of bismuth with aliquat 336S from citrate solutions

Bismuth is extracted from O.O1M citric acid at pH 3.0 with Aliquat 336S coated on a silica gel column, by extraction chromatography. It was then stripped with 0.1M sulphuric acid and determined spectrophotometrically at 460 nm as the iodide complex. Bismuth was effectively separated from binary as well as ternary mixtures by taking advantage of the difference in the stability of the citrate complexes with metal ions in mineral acids. The method was extended to the analysis of bismuth from low fusible alloys.