Biosurfactant in Planar Chromatography of Transition Metal Ions: Mixed Micelles Activated Separations

Sodium deoxycholate (a biosurfactant) in planar chromatography has been used to investigate the separation and migration behavior of transition metal ions. The chromatographic system comprised of soil-cellulose (3:7, w/w) as stationary phase and mixed micellar solution (sodium deoxycholate-sodium dodecyl sulfate, 1.0% each in 1:1 ratio) containing M5-acetonitrile in 3:2 ratio (v/v) was identified as the best mobile phase for separation and migration of transition metal ions. The Rfvalue for the metals follows the order, Cu(II) (0.15) < Ag(I) (0.57) < Au(III) (0.91) which also happens to be the order of increasing atomic weight of the metal ions in the periodic group. The detection limit of Cu(II), Ag(I), and Au(III) was found to be 0.22, 1.48, and 7.76 µg zone-1respectively. The proposed method is robust, sensitive, easy, and reproducible. It has been used for successful identification and separation of above mentioned cations in sample matrices.