Determination of gold, silver and palladium by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after preconcentration with amberlite XAD-16 resin

In this study, Au, Ag and Pd have been preconcentrated by using a column containing Amberlite XAD-16 resin. The effect of the factors such as pH, complexing agent, the type and concentration of elution solutions, the flow rate and the volume of sample solution on the preconcentration efficiency have also been investigated. At optimum conditions determined experimentally, the recoveries of Au, Ag and Pd were found as to be (95,48±0,04)%, (99,20±0,07)% and (98,03±0,08) respectively. For the determination of the adsorption behaviour of the resin, the adsorption isotherms of Au, Ag and Pd have been studied and the binding equilibrium constants and the adsorption capacities have been calculated. In order to investigate the applicability of the method to real samples, the effect of some matrix elements such as Fe, Cu, Ni, Na, K, Ca and Mg on the recovery have been investigated. Sufficient recovery has been obtained up to 1000 fold excess of matrix elements. The proposed methods have been applied for the determination of Au, Ag and Pd on the standard referans material (SRM). Au, Ag and Pd have been determined with the relative errors 3,5%, 6,25% and 5,68% respectively. The detection and quantitation limits of the analytes have been also determined.