Evaluation of performance of three different hybrid mesoporous solids based on silica for preconcentration purposes in analytical chemistry: From the study of sorption features to the determination of elements of group IB

Several studies involving the physicochemical interaction of three silica based hybrid mesoporous materials with metal ions of the group IB have been performed in order to employ them for preconcentration purposes in the determination of traces of Cu(II), Ag(I) and Au(III). The three solids were obtained from mesoporous silica functionalized with 3-aminopropyl (APS), 3-mercaptopropyl (MPS) and N-2-aminoethyl]-3-aminopropyl (NN) groups, respectively. Adsorption capacities for Au, Cu and Ag were calculated using Langmuir's isotherm model and then, the optimal values for the retention of each element onto each one of the solids were found. Physicochemical data obtained under thermodynamic equilibrium and under kinetic conditions - imposed by flow through experiments - allowed the design of simple analytical methodologies where the solids were employed as fillings of microcolumns held in continuous systems coupled on-line to an atomic absorption spectrometry. In order to control the interaction between the filling and the analyte at short times (flow through conditions) and thus, its effect on the analytical signal and the presence of interferences, the initial adsorption velocities were calculated using the pseudo second order model. All these experiments allowed the comparison of the solids in terms of their analytical behaviour at the moment of facing the determination of the three elements.Under optimized conditions mainly given by the features of the filling, the analytical methodologies developed in this work showed excellent performances with limits of detection of 0.14, 0.02 and 0.025 μg L⁻¹ and RSD % values of 3.4, 2.7 and 3.1 for Au, Cu and Ag, respectively.A full discussion of the main findings on the interaction metal ions/fillings will be provided. The analytical results for the determination of the three metals will be also presented.