Paper chromatographic separation and spectrophotometric determination of trace amount of zirconium

Zirconium could be separated from the other metals by ascending paper chromatography with EtOH-AcOEt-H_2O-HCl (10 : 20 : 10 : 1 by volume), EtOH-BuOH-H_2O-HCl (4 : 6 : 5 : 1), isoPrOH-H_2O-HCl (20 : 11 : 1) or isoPrOH-AcOEt-H_2O-HCl (20 : 5 : 11 : 1) solvent system. The separated zirconium was eluted completely from the chromatogram section by dropping 20ml concentrated hydrochloric acid with burette. The eluted solution was transferred to 50ml volumetric flask, and to which 13ml hydrochloric acid, 5ml gelatin solution and 3ml 0.3% Arsenazo III solution were added. After 30 minutes, the absorbance was measured at 665mμ against water. Satisfactory results were obtained with 0.5～20μg zirconium.