Fluorimetric determination of thallium in silicate rocks with Rhodamine B after separation by adsorption on a crown ether polymer

Abstract

A procedure was developed for the determination of thallium (⩽0.05 p.p.m.) in silicate rocks and related materials. It is based on the separation of thallium by adsorption on a column of a crown ether polymer, poly(dibenzo-18-crown-6), and elution, followed by fluorimetric determination using an improved Rhodamine B method. Thallium was determined in a variety of rock reference samples with almost quantitative recovery and a relative standard deviation of about 10%. The results obtained were generally in good agreement with those obtained by other workers.