Polyelectrolyte modified silica gel micro-column solid phase Extraction for the Determination of silver in Environmental water samples by flame atomic absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

Silica gel was chemically modified with polyelectrolyte and used as a solid phase extraction adsorbent for the determination of trace silver in environmental water samples by flame absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The effects of pH, sample flow rate and volume, elution conditions and co-existing ions on the recovery of the analyte were investigated. The results showed that silver could be adsorbed at pH 5.0 and eluted by 5.0 mL 2% thiourea in HNO3 (0.1 mol L-1). Under the optimized conditions, the adsorption capacity of modified silica gel was found to be 8.6 mg g-1 for silver. The detection limit of the proposed method was 1.0 ng mL-1 for silver with an enrichment factor of 18.7. The analytical result for the certified reference water sample (GBW08610) was in a good agreement with the certified value. The proposed method has also been successfully applied to the determination of trace silver in drinking water, well water, snow water and waste water with the recoveries for spiked samples between 94% and 105%.