Exfoliated graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets for on-line vortex-assisted dispersive micro-solid phase extraction of indium prior to determination by ICP-OES

Abstract

ABSTRACT A new online vortex-assisted dispersive micro-solid phase extraction method was developed for the preconcentration of trace amounts of indium as a prior step to its determination by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The methodology is based on the direct adsorption of In(III) ions by the graphitic carbon nitride nanosheets without using any chelating agent. In this method, after dispersion of sorbent particles into the sample solution, the resulting suspension was passed through a membrane filter and subsequently, the adsorbed In(III) ions were eluted from the membrane and directly introduced into the ICP-OES spectrometer. The developed on-line technique facilitates the conventional D-µSPE method by eliminating the centrifugation stage. Under the optimum conditions, the detection limit for the determination of In(III) was found to be 0.32 µg L−1. The developed method was employed for the preconcentration and quantitation of indium in various water samples.