Process for separating and purifying metallic elements by displacement chromatography

Claim 1

A process for separating and purifying metallic elements by displacement chromatography, which comprises the steps of: (1) in either order, (a) packing a column with a resin; and (b) treating the resin with a regenerative solution containing an activator, to obtain a column of an activated resin; said resin being one having a chelating group of a structure derived by removing a hydrogen atom from a chelating compound of the formula: ##STR12## in which R 1 , R 2 and R 3 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a group of the formula: --CH.sub.2 COOR.sup.5 in which R 5 represents a hydrogen atom, a metal atom or a hydrocarbon residue having 1 to 4 carbon atoms; A 1 , A 2 and A 3 each independently represent a group of the formula: ##STR13## in which R 6 has the same meaning as that of R 5 ; and i, j and k each independently are an integer of 0 to 3, exclusive of the case of all of i, j and k being concurrently 0; (2) passing through the column of the activated resin a solution containing a plurality of metallic elements to be separated to adsorb the elements on the activated resin, thereby forming an adsorption band of the metallic elements in the column packed with the activated resin; (3) passing an eluent through the column of the resin having the adsorption band of the metallic elements to form the individual metallic elements into bands; (4) further passing an eluent through the column, causing the bands of the individual metallic elements to pass down the column; and (5) collecting successive portions of the resultant eluate.