Pre-concentration of ultra trace amounts of copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel in environmental water samples using modified C18 extraction disks and determination by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry

A highly sensitive and accurate method for pre-concentration and determination of ultra trace amounts of zinc, copper, cobalt and nickel ions in environmental water samples is proposed. The method is based on the solid phase extraction of these ions on C18-bonded silica extraction disks modified with a novel Schiff base 2,2'-[1,6-hexanediyl bis (nitriloethylidine)]bis-1-naphthol (HDN). The retained ions on the prepared solid phase was eluted with 10 mL 0.01 M nitric acid and measured by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The extraction efficiency and the influence of the type and least amount of eluent for the stripping of ions from the disks, pH, flow rates of sample solution and eluent, amount of HDN, effect of other ions and breakthrough volume were evaluated. The limits of detection of the method were 0.2, 0.2, 0.8 and 0.6 g L-1 for zinc, copper, cobalt and nickel, respectively and an enrichment factor of 100 was obtained. The proposed method was applied for determination of zinc, copper, cobalt and nickel ions in some natural and synthetic water samples with satisfactory results.