On-line preconcentration of nickel on activated carbon prior to its determination by vapor generation associated to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry

S. CERUTTI, S. MOYANO, J. MARRERO, P. SMICHOWSKI, L.D. MARTINEZ

JOURNAL OF ANALYTICAL ATOMIC SPECTROMETRY

Royal Society of Chemistry

Año: 2005 vol. 20 p. 559 - 561

0267-9477

An on-line nickel preconcentration system implemented with chemical vapor generation associated to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (VG-ICP-OES) was studied. Trace amounts of nickel were preconcentrated by sorption on a minicolumn packed with activated carbon at pH 5.0. The analyte retained was removed from the minicolumn with 0.3 mol l-1 hydrochloric acid. After that, volatile species of nickel were generated by merging the acidified sample and sodium tetrahydroborate(III) in a continuous flow system. The gaseous analyte was subsequently introduced via a stream of Ar carrier into the inlet tube of the inductively coupled plasma torch. For the preconcentration procedure, an enrichment factorof 36-fold for a sample volume of 25 ml was obtained. The detection limit (DL) obtained was 0.06 ug l-1. The precision (RSD) for ten replicate determinations at a level of 0.5 ug l-1 was 4.0%. Potential interfering effects on the Ni signal were examined