Flow injection method for the determination of silver concentration in drinking water for spacecrafts

A flow injection method has been developed for determination of silver. The method is based on a reduction reaction with sodium borohydride which leads to the formation of a colloidal species which is monitored at a wavelength of 390 nm.The reaction variables flow rate, sodium borohydride concentration and pH, which affect sensitivity, were investigated and their effects were established using a two-levels, three-factor experimental design. Further optimization of manifold variables (reaction coil and injection volume) allowed us to determine silver in the range 0.050–5.0 mg L−1 with a minimum detectable concentration of 0.050 mg L−1. Silver is added, as biocide, to drinking water for spacecrafts. The chemical species of silver, present in this kind of sample, were characterized by a procedure based on the selective retention of Ag+ onto a 2.2.2. cryptand based substrate followed by determination of the non-bound and bound (after elution) Ag+ by the FIA method. The method optimized was applied to a drinking water sample provided for the launch with the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) module Jule Verne to the International Space Station (March 9, 2008).