SIMULTANEOUS DETERMINATION OF CHROMIUM(III), ALUMINUM(III), AND IRON(II) IN TANNERY SLUDGE ACID-EXTRACTS BY REVERSED-PHASE HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHY

A new chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of Cu(II), Zn(II), Cr(III), Al(III), and Fe(III) or Fe(II) has been developed. The method is based on precolumn formation of stable metal-8-hydroxyquinoline chelates, their separation on a C-18 reversed-phase column by HPLC, and their UV-vis detection at 400 nm. The experimental conditions giving the highest chelate yields resulted: pH 4.2; T = 90-degrees-C; reaction time 30 min; reaction mixture composition methanol (66.7%)/acetonitrile (13.3%)/water (20%) (v/v/v) plus 10 mM 8-hydroxyquinoline. The mobile-phase composition giving the best resolution of Cr(III)- and Al(III)-8-hydroxyquinoline chromatographic peaks has been optimized by the simplex algorithm: acetonitrile (13.5%)/methanol (29%)/0.1 acetate buffer pH 6.8 (13.5%) (v/v/v) plus 100 mM 8-hydroxyquinoline. The method has been applied to synthetic solutions as well as, after sample pretreatment on XAD-7 resin, to real sulfuric acid extracts of tannery sludges. As for this latter matrix, additional information on Cr and Fe oxidation states has been obtained, combining the proposed method with atomic absorption spectroscopy and ion chromatography.