Selective Cation-Exchange Separation of Cobalt in Hydrochloric Acid-Acetone Solutions

Abstract

Abstract In the present paper a method is described for the selective separation of cobalt from 29 metal ions. This technique is based on the uptake of cobalt together with several other metal ions on Dowex 50, X8, a strong acid cation-exchange resin, from a solution consisting of 80% acetone and 20% 3 N hydrochloric acid. After this adsorption, which is accompanied by the simultaneous removal of many elements, the cobalt is eluted with 90% acetone-10% 6 N hydrochloric acid. The only element which passes into the eluate together with cobalt is manganese (II). This method can be successfully employed to separate milligram and microgram amounts of cobalt from large quantities of other metal ions, e.g., iron, nickel, aluminum, uranium, etc.