Silica-gel Particles Loaded with an Ionic Liquid for Separation of Zr(IV) Prior to Its Determination by ICP-OES

Hadi M Marwani; Amjad E Alsafrani; Abdullah M Asiri; Mohammed M Rahman

doi:10.3390/s16071001

Silica-gel Particles Loaded with an Ionic Liquid for Separation of Zr(IV) Prior to Its Determination by ICP-OES

Sensors (Basel). 2016 Jun 29;16(7):1001. doi: 10.3390/s16071001.

Authors

Hadi M Marwani^{1

2}, Amjad E Alsafrani³, Abdullah M Asiri^{4

5}, Mohammed M Rahman^{6

7}

Affiliations

¹ Chemistry department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. hmarwani@kau.edu.sa.
² Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. hmarwani@kau.edu.sa.
³ Chemistry department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. mjad.1985@hotmail.com.
⁴ Chemistry department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. ceamr2@gmail.com.
⁵ Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. ceamr2@gmail.com.
⁶ Chemistry department, Faculty of Science, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. mmrahman@kau.edu.sa.
⁷ Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research (CEAMR), King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80203, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia. mmrahman@kau.edu.sa.

Abstract

A new ionic liquid loaded silica gel amine (SG-APTMS-N,N-EPANTf₂) was developed, as an adsorptive material, for selective adsorption and determination of zirconium, Zr(IV), without the need for a chelating intermediate. Based on a selectivity study, the SG-APTMS-N,N-EPANTf₂ phase showed a perfect selectivity towards Zr(IV) at pH 4 as compared to other metallic ions, including gold [Au(III)], copper [Cu(II)], cobalt [Co(II)], chromium [Cr(III)], lead [Pb(II)], selenium [Se(IV)] and mercury [Hg(II)] ions. The influence of pH, Zr(IV) concentration, contact time and interfering ions on SG-APTMS-N,N-EPANTf₂ uptake for Zr(IV) was evaluated. The presence of incorporated donor atoms in newly synthesized SG-APTMS-N,N-EPANTf₂ phase played a significant role in enhancing its uptake capacity of Zr(IV) by 78.64% in contrast to silica gel (activated). The equilibrium and kinetic information of Zr(IV) adsorption onto SG-APTMS-N,N-EPANTf₂ were best expressed by Langmuir and pseudo second-order kinetic models, respectively. General co-existing cations did not interfere with the extraction and detection of Zr(IV). Finally, the analytical efficiency of the newly developed method was also confirmed by implementing it for the determination of Zr(IV) in several water samples.

Keywords: Zr(IV) detection; adsorption isotherm; inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES); ionic-liquid; solid-phase extraction.