Separation of gold, palladium and platinum from metallurgical samples using an amberlite XAD-7 resin column prior to their atomic absorption spectrometric determinations.

A simple and sensitive method for the separation and preconcentration of gold, palladium and platinum has been established prior to their atomic absorption spectrometric determinations. Analytes from 0.5 mol dm(-3) KI in a 2 mol dm(-3) HCl solution were recovered using an Amberlite XAD-7 column as halogeno complexes. The effects of some analytical parameters, including reagent amounts, sample volume and flow rates, on the quantitative recoveries of gold, palladium and platinum were investigated. The influences of some diverse ions were also studied. The proposed method has been applied for the preconcentration and separation of analytes from pure copper and anodic slime samples with satisfactory results (recoveries > 95%, relative standard deviations < 9.0%, relative error < or = 5%).