| title: | A preparative capillary electrophoresis system for speciation of heavy metals |
|---|---|
| reg no: | ETF5618 |
| project type: | Estonian Science Foundation research grant |
| subject: |
2.6. Chemical Engineering |
| status: | completed |
| institution: | Tallinn Technical University |
| head of project: | Anu Viitak |
| duration: | 01.01.2003 - 31.12.2005 |
| description: | One of the essential indicators of quality of natural waters is the content and concentration of heavy metal species in it. The measurements of total amount of a given metal are easily performed by selective and sensitive atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) methods. However, measuring the total amount is not always sufficient, specially when different oxidation states of the same metal differ drastically (e.g. one of them being highly toxic, and the other essential nutrient for mammals). Therefore, methods which are able to differenciate between different forms of a metal are highly recommended. The aim of the project is to design a simple preparative capillary electrophoresis (CE) device, enabling to separate different oxidation states of a given metal before detecting them by AAS. The species under investigation will be transformed into ionic form and separated in a narrow capillary by electric field. To be able to use less sensitive AAS methods like flame-AAS the capillary is chosen with wider inner diameter than it is general in "classical" CE approach. The device is planned to built extremely economically and easy to operate. For the preliminary studies but also as the first task it is planned to investigate the speciation of chromium (mainly Cr(III) and Cr(VI)). |
| project group | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| no | name | institution | position | |
| 1. | Ruth Kuldvee | Tallinn Technical University | Docent | |
| 2. | Anu Viitak | TTU, YK | senior researcher | |