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Onsite chelate resin solid-phase extraction of rare earth elements in natural water samples: its implication for studying past redox changes by inorganic geochemistry

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Abstract

Rare earth element (REE) patterns in natural water and geological samples provide information on previous changes in environmental conditions, such as redox changes and material cycles; however, quantitative analysis of REEs in these samples is complicated by the relatively low contents of REEs in such samples as well as mass interference from 135Ba16O and 137Ba16O in inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) analyses. In this study, onsite solid-phase extraction and preconcentration methods for REEs using an iminobisacetic acid–ethylenediaminetriacetic acid chelate resin (Nobias Chelate PA1, Hitachi High-Tech Fielding) were adopted for the analyses. Standard reference materials (SPS-SW1 artificial surface water) and natural ground water and spring water samples were used to evaluate the methods. Using the chelate resin, background levels of REEs were found to be less than 0.3 ng L−1 and recovery rates (REEs, 1 ng L−1) were 97.9–106.7% for the artificial surface water. Ba contents were lower than the detection limit after extraction. Additionally, duplicate analyses were performed to check the reproducibility of the onsite extraction. The REE patterns in the natural water samples were in good agreement with those obtained using a previous method (the interference calibration method without solid-phase extraction). Therefore, onsite solid-phase extraction using the chelate resin was demonstrated to be a rapid and simple preparation technique for REE analyses.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by a METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan) program for the research and development of technology relating to geological disposal. The authors express their gratitude to the Chubu branch office of the Hitachi High-Tech Fielding Corporation. N. Takamura, Y. Shorin, and an anonymous reviewer are acknowledged for their helpful comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tono Geoscience Center, Geological Isolation Research and Development Directorate, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 959-31 Jorinji, Izumicho, Toki-Shi, Gifu, 509-5102, Japan

    Takahiro Watanabe, Yoko Saito-Kokubu, Hiroaki Murakami & Teruki Iwatsuki

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  1. Takahiro Watanabe
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  2. Yoko Saito-Kokubu
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  3. Hiroaki Murakami
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  4. Teruki Iwatsuki
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Correspondence to Takahiro Watanabe.

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Watanabe, T., Saito-Kokubu, Y., Murakami, H. et al. Onsite chelate resin solid-phase extraction of rare earth elements in natural water samples: its implication for studying past redox changes by inorganic geochemistry. Limnology 19, 21–30 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10201-017-0513-3

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