Low-temperature sorption-luminescence determination of silver using silica gel chemically modified with mercaptopropyl groups

Silica gel chemically modified with mercaptopropyl groups extracts silver(I) from solutions in the acidity ranges from 4 M HNO₃ to pH 8 and from 0.01 M HCl to pH 7. The time it takes to attain a sorption equilibrium is no more than 2 min; distribution coefficient is 1 × 10⁵ cm³/g. Yellow-orange luminescence was produced in the adsorbent phase upon the UV irradiation of wet adsorbates cooled to the liquid-nitrogen temperature (77 K). This effect was used for the development of a procedure for the low-temperature sorption-luminescence determination of silver. The calibration graph was linear in the range 1–80 µg Ag per 0.1 g of adsorbent. The detection limit was 0.05 µg per 0.02 g of adsorbent. The relative standard deviation was no more than 6% for silver amounts higher than 5 µg.__________Translated from Zhurnal Analiticheskoi Khimii, Vol. 60, No. 4, 2005, pp. 390–393.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Losev, Elsuf ev, Trofimchuk.