Comparison of Modified Palladium Nanoparticles and Homemade Activated Carbon Derived from Medlar for Solid Phase Extraction of Metal Ions Prior to Their Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometry Determination

This study focus on the preparation of two supports including activated carbon derived from medlar and Palladium nanoparticles loaded on activated carbon (Pd-NP-AC). Subsequently, both adsorbent modified with a novel Schiff base chelating agent and their potential applicability for determination of trace amounts of metal ions from aqueous solution has been investigated. The method is based on combination of solid phase extraction (SPE) following chelation of analytes with modifier and their subsequent determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The properties of these adsorbent including surface area, nature and functional groups were identified by various techniques such as FT-IR, TEM, UV-Visible, BET and SEM analysis. The dependency of sorption and desorption of Cu2+, Co2+ and Zn2+ ions as a function of pH, contact time, condition of eluent and adsorption capacities was investigated. According to conditions set as optimum value, the performances such as limits of detection (LODs) were in the range of 0.02-0.2 µg mL-1 for both adsorbents while preconcentration factors for all metal ions were found to be 125 and 100 for Pd-NP-AC and AC, respectively. The five replicate of application of present method to different matrices make possible accurate analytes determination with recovery > 90 % and R.S.D. less than 5.0 % (N=5).