Flow injection method for the determination of silver concentration in drinking water for spacecrafts

A flow injection method has been developed for determination of silver. The method is based on a reduction reaction with sodium borohydride which leads to the formation of a colloidal species which is monitored at a wavelength of 390 nm. The reaction variables flow rate, sodium borohydride concentration and pH, which affect sensitivity, were investigated and their effects were established using a two-levels, three-factor experimental design. Further optimization of manifold variables (reaction coil and injection volume) allowed us to determine silver in the range 0.050-5.0 mg L(-1) with a minimum detectable concentration of 0.050 mg L(-1). Silver is added, as biocide, to drinking water for spacecrafts. The chemical species of silver, present in this kind of sample, were characterized by a procedure based on the selective retention of Ag(+) onto a 2.2.2. cryptand based substrate followed by determination of the non-bound and bound (after elution) Ag(+) by the FIA method. The method optimized was applied to a drinking water sample provided for the launch with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) module Jule Verne to the International Space Station (March 9, 2008). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.