Flow injection on-line sorbent extraction of metals with activated carbon and its application to inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

A flow injection on-line sorbent extraction method for the determination of metals using activated carbon as sorbent and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer as detector is developed. In the present method, we have extended the application of flow injection sorbent extraction Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS) to ICP-AES to eliminate the spectral interference, unability of the most of the ICP-AES to handle transient signals, separation and enrichment of the analyte from interfering matrix. The method is based on the on-line chelation of metals with 8-hydroxyquinoline, adsorption an activated carbon micro column, desorption (elution) with nitric acid and on-line detection by the ICP-AES. Various parameters affecting the analytical signals such as reaction coil length detection by the ICP-AES various parameters affecting the analytical signals such as reaction coil length, elution time, reagent concentration and pH of the solution were optimized. After the optimization the method was applied to determine Zinc, Nickel and Cadmium in the water samples. (author)