Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric determination of cobalt in biological samples and natural waters using a flow injection system with on-line preconcentration by ion-pair adsorption in a knotted reactor

An on-line flow injection preconcentration-ETAAS method is developed for trace determination of cobalt in biological materials and natural samples by ion-pair sorption on the inner walls of a PTFE knotted reactor. The ion-pair is formed between the negatively charged cobalt-nitroso-R-salt complex and the tetrabutylammonium counter-ion. An enhancement factor of 15, a sampling frequency of 17 and a concentration efficiency of 4 are obtained for a preconcentration time of 60 s and a sample loading flow rate of 5 mL min(-1). The detection limit (3 sigma) is 5 ng L-1. The relative standard deviation at the 0.2 mu g L-1 level is 2.3%. The analytical results obtained for standard reference materials are in good agreement with the certified or indicated values and satisfactory recoveries of spiked cobalt in tap water are obtained.