Electrosynthesis of a new selective chelating agent for solid phase extraction of Ni(II) from water samples: characterisation and analytical applications

Abstract

A new polymer as a selective chelating agent for separation and preconcentration of nickel ions from water samples was prepared by electropolymerisation of 4-nitrophenol. Electrosynthesis was carried out on the lead cathode in aqueous sodium acetate solution. The electrode-product is a dark-brown powder, insoluble in water but soluble in methanol, N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) and tetrahydrofuran (THF). The electrode-product was characterised by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), gel permeation chromatography (GPC), FT-IR, 1H-NMR, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and UV-Vis spectrometry. A proper mechanism and structure of the prepared polymer was suggested. A few drops of methanolic solution of electrode-product formed a blue complex with nickel ions in an aqueous medium in the pH range of 6 to 10. This new chelating reagent was used as a coating material on activated charcoal and applied for solid phase extraction of trace amounts of nickel ions from natural and waste waters. The effect of different parameters such as type of eluent, elution conditions, sample volume and sample flow rate and mass of coating material were studied. In the presence of co-existing ions, no significant interferences were observed. Under the optimal conditions, limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) were 0.32 and 1 µg L−1 Ni(II), respectively. The proposed method was used for determination of Ni(II) in some lagoons south of the Caspian Sea and waste waters of factories. The validity of this method was confirmed by the comparison of the obtained results with the results of ICP-OES.