Synthesis and efficiency of an epoxy-tannin chelating resin for preconcentrating and separating various rare elements

A new epoxy-tannin chelating resin was synthesized from epoxy resin and used for the preconcentration and separation of rare elements. The acidity, rate, reuse, capacity and interference on the adsorption of ions on the resin as well as the conditions of desorption of these ions from the resin were investigated by means of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The composition of the resin and mechanism of enrichment for some ions were discussed. The results show that the relative standard deviations for the determination of 50 ng ml−1 Ga(III), In(III), Bi(III) and Sn(IV), 10 ng ml−1 La(III), Y(III), Cr(III), Ti(IV) and V(V) and 1.0 ng ml−1 Be(II) were in the range of 0.5–4.5%. The contents of these elements in a sample solution from a smelter determined by the new method were in agreement with those values obtained by Zeeman atomic absorption spectrometry with an average error <3.4%.