Synthesis and efficiency of a polyacrylacylisothiourea chelating fibre for the preconcentration and separation of trace amounts of gold, palladium and ruthenium from solution samples

Abstract

A polyacrylacylisothiourea chelating fibre was synthesized using polyacrylonitrile fibre as a starting material, and the structure of the chelating fibre was determined by infrared spectrometry. The parameters influencing the efficiency of the fibre at concentrating trace amounts of Au^III, Pd^IV, and Ru^III, including acidity, flow rate, adsorption capacity, effect of re-use, interfering ions, and desorption, were investigated. Gold(III), Pd^IV, and Ru^III were enriched and separated from real samples and were detected using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry with satisfactory results. For concentrations of Au^III, Pd^IV, and Ru^III of 0.008 mg l^–1, the relative standard deviation was 1.8% for Au^III, 2.5% for Pd^IV, and 0.8% for Ru^III. The concentrations obtained for these ions in real solution samples by this method were basically in agreement with the given values, with average errors of less than 2.5%. The method is rapid, precise, simple, and convenient to use.