Flame atomic absorption determination of palladium in solutions after preconcentration using octadecyl silica membrane disks modified by thioridazine.HCl

A new simple and reliable method for rapid and selective extraction and determination of trace level of Pd(II) ion is developed. Palladium ions are adsorbed quantitatively during passage of aqueous samples through octadecyl silica membrane disks modified with thioridazine-HCl (TRH). The influence of flow rates of eluent and sample solution, amount of ligand, types and least amount of eluent, and pH of samples were studied. Almost all matrix elements were found to pass through the disk to drain. Break through volume and limit of detection of the membrane disks modified by 5 mg of TRH was found to be 1.01 and 12 mug l(-1), respectively. The retained Pd(II) ions are then stripped from the disk with a minimal amount of sulfite solution as eluent and subsequently measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. The proposed method permitted large enrichment factors of about 100 and higher. The method was applied to the recovery of Pd(II) ions from different industrial samples and waters. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.