Preconcentration of trace manganese from natural waters by complexation with dithiocarbamate and adsorption onto C18-solid phase extraction column for neutron activation analysis

A method was developed for the preconcentration and separation of trace manganese from natural water samples by complexation with dithiocarbamate followed by adsorption onto C₁₈-solid phase extraction column prior to irradiation. The Mn recovery was better than 99.8% without inteference from iron(III) at 5 mg^.l^-1, copper(II), zinc(II), aluminum(III) and cobalt(II) at 0.5 mg^.l^-1 and sodium(I), potassium(I), magnesium(II) and calcium(II) at 1 mg^.l^-1. The separation factor was 100 and the detection limit was 0.01 μg^.l^-1 with good precision and accuracy with a relative error lower than 3%. The method was applied to the determination of Mn in tap, well, river and treated water samples. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.