Inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry/mass spectrometry for the determination of Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in seawater after ionic imprinted polymer based solid phase extraction

Acidified seawater samples must only be treated to fix an alkaline pH (8.5 ± 0.5) and passed through IIP-SPE cartridges. After seawater sample loading (250 mL), analytes were eluted with 2.5 mL of 2.0 M nitric acid, offering a pre-concentration factor of 100. Therefore, the limits of detection (LODs) of the method were 0.14, 0.15, 0.18 and 0.03 μg L−1, for Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn, respectively, when using ICP-OES detection and 0.0022, 0.0065, 0.0040 and 0.009 μg L−1, for Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn, respectively, for ICP-MS detection. Accuracy of the method was assessed by analyzing SLEW-3 (estuarine water), and TM-23.3 and TM-24 (lake water) certified reference materials.