Column Preconcentration and FAAS Determination of Heavy Metal Ions using Artemisia Siberi as an Adsorbent

Abstract

Abstract A new column procedure for the determination of trace amounts of cadmium (II), lead (II), nickel (II), zinc (II), and copper (II), which combines flame atomic absorption spectrometry is described. These metals were sorbed on Artemisia siberi herb as an adsorbent at pH 4.0 and eluted with 3 mL of 1.5 M HNO3. The influences of analytical parameters including pH, flow rate, sample volume, type of eluent, and effect of diverse salts and cations on the recoveries of analyte ions were studied. The developed procedure provides preconcentration factors of about 117. LODs were 0.2 (Cd), 0.4 (Cu), 0.2 (Ni), 0.6 (Zn), and 1.4 (Pb) μg/L. The present method was successfully applied to the determination of the above-mentioned ions in water samples from Semnan, Iran. Recoveries greater than 95% and RSDs below 10% were obtained.