8-Hydroxyquinoline anchored to silica gel via new moderate size linker: synthesis and applications as a metal ion collector for their flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination

Abstract

The silica gel modified with (3-aminopropyl-triethoxysilane) was reacted with 5-formyl-8-hydroxyquinoline (FHOQ x) to anchor 8-quinolinol ligand on the silica gel. It was characterised with cross polarisation magic angle spinning (CPMAS) NMR and diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transformation (DRIFT) spectroscopy and used for the preconcentration of Cu(II), Pb(II), Ni(II), Fe(III), Cd(II), Zn(II) and Co(II) prior to their determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The surface area of the modified silica gel has been found to be 227 m 2 g −1 and the two p Ka values as 3.8 and 8.0. The optimum pH ranges for quantitative sorption are 4.0–7.0, 4.5–7.0, 3.0–6.0, 5.0–8.0, 5.0–8.0, 5.0–8.0 and 4.0–7.0 for Cu, Pb, Fe, Zn, Co, Ni and Cd, respectively. All the metals can be desorbed with 2.5 mol l −1 HCl or HNO 3. The sorption capacity for these metal ions is in range of 92–448.0 μmol g −1 and follows the order Cd<Pb<Zn<Co<Ni<Fe<Cu. Tolerance limits for electrolytes NaNO 3, NaCl, NaBr, Na 2SO 4 and Na 3PO 4, glycine, sodium citrate, EDTA, humic acid and cations Ca(II), Mg(II), Mn(II) and Cr(III) in the sorption of all the seven metal ions are reported. The preconcentration factors are 150, 250, 200, 300, 250, 300 and 200 for Cd, Co, Zn, Cu, Pb, Fe and Ni, respectively and t 1/2 values <1 min except for Ni. The 95% extraction by batch method takes ≤25 min. The simultaneous enrichment and determination of all the metals are possible if the total load of the metal ions is less than sorption capacity. In river water samples all these metal ions were enriched with the present ligand anchored silica gel and determined with flame atomic absorption spectrometer (R.S.D.≤6.4%). Cobalt contents of pharmaceutical samples (vitamin tablet) were preconcentrated with the present chelating silica gel and estimated by flame AAS, with R.S.D.∼1.4%. The results are in the good agreement with the certified value, 1.99 μg g −1 of the tablets. Iron and copper in certified reference materials (synthetic) SLRS-4 and SLEW-3 have been enriched with the modified silica gel and estimated with R.S.D.<5%.