Speciation of very low amounts of antimony in waters using magnetic core-modified silver nanoparticles and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Ignacio López-García; Silvia Rengevicova; María J Muñoz-Sandoval; Manuel Hernández-Córdoba

doi:10.1016/j.talanta.2016.10.044

Speciation of very low amounts of antimony in waters using magnetic core-modified silver nanoparticles and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Talanta. 2017 Jan 1:162:309-315. doi: 10.1016/j.talanta.2016.10.044. Epub 2016 Oct 10.

Authors

Ignacio López-García¹, Silvia Rengevicova², María J Muñoz-Sandoval¹, Manuel Hernández-Córdoba³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Analytical Chemistry, Regional Campus of International Excellence "Campus Mare-Nostrum", University of Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain.
² Department of Analytical Chemistry, P.J. Šafárik University, SK-04154 Košice, Slovak Republic.
³ Department of Analytical Chemistry, Regional Campus of International Excellence "Campus Mare-Nostrum", University of Murcia, E-30100 Murcia, Spain. Electronic address: hcordoba@um.es.

PMID: 27837834
DOI: 10.1016/j.talanta.2016.10.044

Abstract

A micro-solid phase extraction procedure for the separation and preconcentration of antimony based in the use of magnetic particles covered with silver nanoparticles functionalized with the sodium salt of 2-mercaptoethane-sulphonate (MESNa) is discussed. After separation by means of a magnetic field, the solid phase is directly introduced into an electrothermal atomizer for antimony determination. Alternatively, the solid can be slurried and then injected into the atomizer. In all cases, palladium nitrate is used as a chemical modifier. The preconcentration factors are close to 205 and 325, with detection limits of 0.02 and 0.03µgL^-1 antimony, for the slurry and solid sampling procedures, respectively. Speciation of Sb(III) and Sb(V) is achieved by means of two extractions carried out at different acidity. The results for total antimony are verified using certified reference materials. Water samples are analyzed for antimony speciation.

Keywords: Antimony; Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry; Magnetic-core particles; Speciation; Waters.