Solid-phase extraction in the determination of gold, palladium, and platinum

A simple classification of various sorbents and solid-phase extraction procedures used for preconcentration of trace levels of Au, Pd, and Pt from different sample types is proposed in this review article. The large variety of available sorbents/procedures has been organized according to expected mechanisms of sorption process (complex formation; ion exchange; adsorption; ion-imprinted or molecularly imprinted polymers); according to the kind of monomeric units of the polymer matrix as well as on the basis of the kind of functional group responsible for main performance characteristics (selectivity, capacity) of the sorbent. Advantages of chemically modified sorbents, sulfur-containing sorbent extractants, and ion-imprinted polymers, together with rational pretreatment by means of microwave treatments, scaling down of enrichment, and quantification by means of flow and flow injection approaches are given. Preferred instrumental techniques for quantification of ppb levels of Au, Pd, and Pt in prepared concentrates/column eluates are multielement instrumental techniques: inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES), and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). Excellent limits of detection at picogram levels of these analytes are provided by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS), generally in single-element mode and the neutron activation analysis (NAA), while X-ray fluorescence spectrometry and flame AAS are rarely applied because of lack of sensitivity at sub-ppm levels of Au, Pd, and Pt. Some problems of atomic spectrometric quantification techniques and their representative limits of detection are given. Recent applications to geological, industrial, pharmaceutical, biological, and other materials are tabulated. References have been selected mostly from the period 1995 to 2010.