RETRACTED ARTICLE: Application of Polypropylene Amine Dendrimers (POPAM)-Grafted MWCNTs Hybrid Materials as a New Sorbent for Solid-Phase Extraction and Trace Determination of Gold(III) and Palladium(II) in Food and Environmental Samples

Abstract

A new method which utilizes a polypropylene amine dendrimers (POPAM)-grafted multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) hybrid materials as an effective sorbent in solid-phase extraction has been developed for separation and preconcentration of Au(III) and Pd(II) trace levels in food, water and soil samples. The optimum experimental conditions such as pH, flow rates, type, concentration, and volume of the eluent for elution of gold and palladium ions, breakthrough volume, and effect of potentially interfering ions on separation and determination of these noble metals were investigated. The extraction recoveries for the mentioned noble metals were greater than 98 % and the limits of detection were 0.08 and 0.12 ng mL−1 for gold and palladium, respectively. The relative standard deviations of the method were less than 4 % for eight separate column experiments for determination of 5.0 μg of gold and palladium ions. The adsorption capacity of the modified MWCNT was 92 mg g−1 for gold and 74 mg g−1 for palladium on POPAM-grafted MWCNTs. Validation of the suggested method was performed by analyzing certified reference materials. Finally, the proposed method was applied for determination of gold(III) and palladium(II) in real samples, including fish, shrimp, water, and soil.