Determination of vanadium in clam tissue (citterea sp.) by normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography with N-phenylbenzohydroxamic acid

A normal-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method for the selective determination of vanadium with N-phenylbenzohydroxamic acid (PBHA) is described. The VV–PBHA complex was preconcentrated by solvent extraction into trichloromethane and injected on to a silica gel column for HPLC, with a mobile phase of methanol–trichloromethane (3 + 97) containing 9.4 × 10–4 mol dm–3 PBHA. The detection limit for vanadium by the proposed method was 8.3 and 1.7 µg dm–3 for phase-volume ratios of 5 : 1 and 20 : 1 (aqueous-to-organic), respectively. Vanadium has been determined in clam tissue with satisfactory precision.