Reduction of trace quantities of chromium(VI) by strong acids

• Main Authors: Pezzin Sérgio H, Rivera José F. Lugo, Collins Carol H, Collins Kenneth E
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Química 2004-01-01
• Series: Journal of the Brazilian Chemical Society
• Subjects: chromium; chromate; speciation; ion exchange chromatography; acid reduction
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-50532004000100011

The chemical behavior of Cr(VI) at low concentrations (10-4 to 10-7 mol L-1) in several strong acids was studied using high specific activity 51Cr(VI) as a tracer. The speciation of the products from these systems was carried out by ion exchange chromatography with stepwise elution. The results show that trace quantities of Cr(VI), monitored by means of radiochromium (51Cr), are reduced in the presence of mineral acids such as perchloric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric, sulfuric, nitric and trifluoromethanesulfonic acids, even in the absence of conventional reducing agents, producing different measureable Cr(III) species, depending on the acid anion. Detailed studies of the reduction of low concentrations of Cr(VI) with nitric acid have shown that the relative rate of reduction increases as the concentration of the acid increases or as the concentration of the Cr(VI) decreases.