Adsorption behaviour of cadmium on L-methionine immobilized on controlled pore glass

The adsorption behaviour of Cd onto the relative non-polar L-methionine was studied. To this end, L-met was immobilized on controlled pore glass (CPG), incorporated in a microcolumn and inserted in a flow injection system for Cd preconcentration from aqueous solutions. Binding constant of the system was calculated and it turned to be of 1.99, with sites capacity of n = 3.12. The ratio of Cd moles bound to L-met moles was calculated and it was 0.03:1 at pH 9.0. On-line breakthrough curves were used to study the effect of pH, analyte concentration and influent flow rate on Cd retention. A complementary pH study was added with a titration curve. Transient peak areas revealed that Cd stripping from the column occurred instantaneously. The system achieves an enrichment factor of 130, reaching a detection limit of 0.63 ng L^{− 1} when 10 mL of the solution were passed through the column. The method was successfully applied to Cd determination in the standard reference material (SRM), QC METAL LL2 metals in natural water, as a validation study.