A selective modified nanoporous silica as sorbent for separation and preconcentration of dysprosium in water samples prior to ICP-OES determination

Abstract

In this research a new physically functionalized nanoporous silica (SBA-15) using N′-[(2-hydroxy phenyl) methylene] benzohydrazide (BBH) was utilized as a selective sorbent for the separation, preconcentration and determination of dysprosium (Dy) in natural water by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The selectivity of BBH to Dy (III) ion was previously tested by conductometric and spectroscopic methods. Conditions for effective adsorption of Dy were optimized with respect to experimental parameters in batch process. The extraction recovery was 96.5, analytical curve was linear in the range 0.2–1000 µgL−1, and the detection limit was 0.05 ng mL−1. The relative standard deviation (RSD) under optimal conditions was 3.2% (n = 10). The sorbent exhibited high adsorption capacity and fast rate of equilibrium for sorption of Dy ions. The method was applied for recovery and determination of dysprosium in different environmental water samples.