Study of the sorption and separation abilities of commercial solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge Oasis MAX towards Au(III), Pd(II), Pt(IV), and Rh(III)

This paper presents a new, simple, and rapid procedure for the separation and preconcentration of Au, Pt, Pd, and Rh based on the adsorption of the metals on a commercial solid-phase extraction (SPE) cartridge, Oasis MAX, which contains a polymeric resin with quaternary ammonium substituents. Adsorption studies revealed that the metal affinity towards the adsorbent ranked according to Au >> Pd > Pt whereas Rh was not retained. The elution of the metals was accomplished by using 0.5 M thiourea in 1 M HCl solution. This sorbent effectively recovered Pd and Pt from a spent car catalyst sample containing large amounts of metals such as Al, Fe, and Ce.