Solid Phase Extraction of Uranium by Naphthalene-Methyltrioctylammonium Chloride and Arsenazo(III) Adsorbent and Subsequent Spectrophotometric Determination

A simple and effective method has been presented for the preconcentration of uranium by solid phase extraction. For this purpose arsenazo(III) supported on naphthalene-methyltrioctylammonium chloride was used as an adsorbent and uranium solution at pH 3.5 with flow rate of 1 mL.min(-1) was passed through the column. Therefore, uranium-arsenazo(III) complex was formed onto column. Uranium was quantitatively eluted with 5 mL of a 0.1% ammonium tetraphenylborate and determined by spectrophotometric method at 652 nm. Several parameters such as pH, amount of reagents, sample volume, etc. were investigated. The effect of diverse ions on the preconcentration has also been studied and the optimized conditions developed have been utilized for the trace determination of uranium. A preconcentration factor of 100 was achieved. The relative standard deviation (N=8) was 0.5% for 3 ng.mL(-1) of uranium. The three sigma detection limit (36) was 0.045 n.mL(-1).