DEVELOPMENT OF CLOUD POINT EXTRACTION FOR SIMULTANEOUS EXTRACTION AND DETERMINATION OF PLATINUM AND PALLADIUM USING INDUCTIVELY COUPLED PLASMA OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROMETRY IN PLATINUM-PALLADIUM SPENT CATALYSTS

A new on-line cloud point extraction system coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was designed for simultaneous extraction, preconcentration and determination of trace amounts of platinum and palladium in platinum-palladium spent catalysts. This was based on the complexation of the metal ions with 1,8-diamino-4,5-bis(hydroxyamino)anthraquinone reagent in the presence of non-ionic surfactant of Triton X-114. After phase separation, the surfactant-rich phase was diluted with concentrated HNO3 (70%, w/w); the analytes concentrations were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. Several factors influencing the instrumental conditions and extraction were evaluated and optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the enhancement factors of the proposed method were 35.4 and 29 for platinum and palladium, respectively. The detection limits were 0.3 and 0.45 mu gL(-1). Finally, the developed method was successfully applied to the extraction and determination of platinum and palladium in platinum-palladium spent catalysts samples and satisfactory results were obtained.