Flame atomic absorption spectrometry determination of trace amounts of copper after separation and preconcentration onto TDMBAC-treated analcime pyrocatechol-immobilized

A simple and reliable method has been developed for green separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of copper ions in aqueous solutions for subsequent measurement by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The Cu²⁺ ions are adsorbed selectively and quantitatively during the passage of an aqueous solution through TDMBAC-treated analcime pyrocatechol-immobilized. The retained copper ions were desorbed from the column with 5.0 mL of 4 mol L⁻¹ nitric acid solutions as eluent and were determined by FAAS. The linear range was 0.2-75 ng mL⁻¹ in the original solution with a correlation coefficient of 0.9987. In this case we can concentrate 0.1 μg of copper from 1000 mL of solution and the proposed method permits a large enrichment factor (about 200). The detection limit of the proposed method is 0.05 ng mL⁻¹ in the original solution (2σ_bl). Determination of copper in standard alloys showed that the proposed method has good accuracy (recovery was more than 97%). The method was successfully applied for recovery and determination of copper in several water samples.