Preparation of a Heavy Metal‐Removed Seawater

A purification procedure is described for preparing a heavy metal‐removed blank seawater without altering its major compositions and pH. Coastal seawater is treated sequentially by passing through a charcoal column, shaking with a dense slurry of ferric hydroxide at pH 8, and passing the surpernatant through a Chelex‐100 chelating ion‐exchange column. Experimental data show that this process efficiently removes Cd, Co, Cu, Cr(III), Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, V and Zn from natural seawater at the spiking concentrations of 10 and 100 ppb levels.