Ion chromatographic investigation of the ion-exchange properties of microdisperse sintered nanodiamonds

The possibility of using sintered diamonds as a stationary phase in ion chromatography has been evaluated. Bare sintered synthetic nanodiamonds demonstrated the properties of a weak cation-exchanger. The observed ion-exchange selectivity is similar to carboxylic type cation-exchangers. The regularities of retention of alkali, alkaline-earth and transition metal ions on a column packed with sintered nanodiamonds in dilute nitric acid were studied and the occurrence of chelating properties was noted. For the first time chromatographic separations of model mixtures of cations on diamonds have been obtained. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.