REVERSED-PHASE EXTRACTION CHROMATOGRAPHIC STUDIES OF MERCURY(II) WITHHIGH-MOLECULAR-WEIGHT CARBOXYLIC-ACID (VERSATIC-10) AND ITS ANALYTICAL APPLICATIONS

Muercury (II) has been extracted at pH 4.5-6.0 from ammonium acetato-a cetic acid buffer on silica gel column impregnated with Versatic-10 (a mixture of high molecular weight carboxylic acid). The extracted merc ury after elution with 0.02 M nitric acid or 0.5 M ammonium nitrate so lution has been estimated by flameless atomic absorption spectrophotom eter. Exchange capacity and breakthrough capacity of the exchanger wit h respect to mercury have been determined. The exchanger has been succ essfully used for quantitative separation of mercury (II) from a numbe r of ions like Mg(II), Cr(III), Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Zn(II), Cu(II) , Y(III), La(III), Ce(IV), Pr(III), Hd(III), Sm(III), Pb(II), Bi(III), Th(IV), U(VI), Fe(III), Zr(IV) and In(III) in synthetic mixtures. Att empts have also been made to extract mercury from industrial sediment samples.