Carboxymethylcellulose packed in to a glass column was used to pre-concentrate metallic cations from aqueous solutions. The pre-concentrated metal cations are directly eluted from the column using 5.0 mL of 1.0 mol L-1 hydrochloric acid. The optimum pre-concentration conditions are given (glass column, 16 cm length, 0.80 cm i.d., stationary phase height of 12 cm, flow-rate, 1.5 mL min-1). The recuperation efficiency achieved is greater than 95%, while the enrichment factor is 10 for 50 mL of solution (0.50 mg L-1 each).
adsorption; carboxymethylcellulose; pre-concentration
