Separation and determination of trace Cu(II), Zn(II), and Pd(II) as their tetraphenylporphine chelates by reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatography

alpha,beta,gamma,delta-Tetraphenylporphine (TPP) was used as a precolumn ch elating reagent for reversed-phase high performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) separation and determination of trace Cu2+, Zn2+ and Pd2+. Chelating reactions of TPP with Cu2+, Zn2+, and Pd2+ have been optimized in the pres ence of anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS). TPP and its metal chelates were successfully separated on a Nucleosil C-18 column (150x4.6 m m I.D., 5 mu m) with acetone-acetonitrile (37.5: 62.5, v/v) as mobile phase . The detection limits (S/N=2) were 3.2x10(-11) g, 2.2x10(-11) g and 2.4x10(- 10) g for Cu2+, Zn2+, and Pd2+, respectively. The proposed method was appli ed to the simultaneous determination of Cu2+, Zn2+ in tea water and the res ults were in agreement with the values obtained by an atomic absorption spe ctrophotometric method.