ICP-AES Determination of Rare Earth Elements in Water Sample After Separation and Enrichment by Amphiprotic Ion Exchange Fiber Column

Trace amounts of rare earth (RE) elements, including La, Nd, Eu, Gd, Er and Yb in water sample were adsorbed and enriched by amphiprotic ion exchange fiber column, and desorbed from the column by eluting with 1.5 mol·L-1 HNO3. The solution obtained was used for ICP-AES determination of the RE elements mentioned above. Under the optimum conditions, the adsorption capacity of the amphiprotic ion exchange fiber column toward La, Nd, Eu, Gd, Er and Yb were found to be 7.32, 7.61, 8.04, 7.95, 9.12 and 8.49 mg·g-1 respectively. Values of detection limits (3S/N) of this method were 0.032 , 0.068, 0.033, 0.053, 0.045 and 0.019 μg·L-1 respectively. The proposed method was applied to the determination of trace amounts of the RE′s in water samples, giving the values of recovery in the range of 90.0%-101% and RSD′s (n=5) ranged from 1.7% to 5.4%.