1988 Volume 4 Issue 1 Pages 81-85
Alkali metal cations were shown to be separable on a silica gel column by cation exchange. Factors affecting the separation of these cations were investigated. Among them, type and concentration of the mobile phase electrolytes profoundly affected the retention of the analyte. The alkali metal cations were well separated on a 150 mm long Zorbax SIL column with 2.1mm i.d., using an aqueous 0.01mol dm-3 lithium acetate as the mobile phase. Sodium and potassium in river water were determined rapidly with satisfactory accuracy.