Abstract
Considering the unique characteristics of rare earth elements (REEs), the presence of REEs beyond specific limits will adversely affect the environment and it can be employed as a powerful probe for investigating hydrogeochemical processes. This requires sensitive determination of REEs in natural seawater. A matrix separation and pre-concentration technique using the mini-column packed with crab shell particles (CSPs) by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) as a means of determination has been developed. The aim of the proposed method was to simultaneously determine 16 REEs (Sc, Y, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Lu) at trace or ultra-trace concentrations in seawater. The biosorption capacity of CSPs was found to achieve 1.246–1.250 mg g−1 for all elements. In order to optimize performance of the method, the effects of analytical parameters concerning oscillation time, solution pH, salt concentration and eluent concentration were explored. Under the optimal conditions, the detection limits of REEs ranged 0.0006–0.0088 μg L−1, and relative standard deviations (n = 7) varied between 0.55 and 1.39%. The accuracy of developed method was evidenced by applying it to the analysis of REEs in seawater samples, with the overall recoveries at a level of 95.3 and 104.4%. Together, this work provides a promising and cost-effective CSPs-based pretreatment approach for REEs detection in sea environment.
Highlights
In recent years, rare earth elements (REEs: consisting of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Y, Sc, and Pm) are extensively used in several industries and high-tech devices, such as petrochemical, ceramic, metallurgy, laser and fiber optic industries (Balaram, 2019)
It should be mentioned that the present approach could extract 1.246–1.250 μg REE in 1 ml aqueous solution when the solid phase extraction (SPE) column was packed with 1 g crab shell particles (CSPs)
After optimization of the separation and pre-concentration of REEs with crap shell particles as a unique sorbent, the results of accuracy and sensitivity for 16 REEs were sufficient for their precise determination in seawater samples
Summary
Rare earth elements (REEs: consisting of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Y, Sc, and Pm) are extensively used in several industries and high-tech devices, such as petrochemical, ceramic, metallurgy, laser and fiber optic industries (Balaram, 2019). Albeit the significant progress in the development of analytical technologies, direct determination of REEs in a highly saline water still remains a challenge To circumvent these difficulties, a variety of approaches including co-precipitation (Zhu, 2020), ion-exchange (Barrat et al, 2020), liquid-liquid extraction (Guo et al, 2014) and solid phase extraction (SPE) (Pyrzynska et al, 2016; Chen et al, 2019) have been used for matrix separation and analyte pre-concentration, aiming to improve detection capability of REEs. To circumvent these difficulties, a variety of approaches including co-precipitation (Zhu, 2020), ion-exchange (Barrat et al, 2020), liquid-liquid extraction (Guo et al, 2014) and solid phase extraction (SPE) (Pyrzynska et al, 2016; Chen et al, 2019) have been used for matrix separation and analyte pre-concentration, aiming to improve detection capability of REEs In terms of these techniques, SPE has been preferred as a sample preparation approach owing to its flexibility of adsorbent, simple operation, low risk of contamination and high recovery (Tazoe et al, 2021). The development of cost-effective SPE adsorbents has drawn special attention in the filed of analyte pretreatment
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