Sorption study of U(VI), Th(IV) and Ce(III) on poly[dibenzo-18-crown-6] in l-arginine to develop sequential column chromatographic separation method

A simple and efficient column chromatographic method has been developed for the sequential separation of U(VI), Th(IV) and Ce(III) using poly[dibenzo-18-crown-6] as stationary phase and l-arginine as a counter ion. The different elution patterns with various eluting agents were observed for individual element. The capacity of poly[dibenzo-18-crown-6] for U(VI), Th(IV) and for Ce(III) was found to be 0.96, 0.86 and 1.49 (+/- 0.01) mmol/g of crown polymer, respectively. The method is efficient to separate the elements in multicomponent mixtures and has good recovery. The method is extended to determine the U(VI), Th(IV) and Ce(III) from monazite sand. The method is simple, rapid and selective having good reproducibility (similar to +/- 2%).