Preconcentration of Cu(II), Fe(III) and Pb(II) with 2-((2-aminoethylamino)methyl)phenol-functionalized activated carbon followed by ICP-OES determination

A procedure for separation and preconcentration trace amount of Cu(II), Fe(III) and Pb(II) by 2-((2-aminoethylamino)methyl)phenol-functionalized activated carbon (AC-AMP) packed column has been proposed. Under the optimized conditions (pH 4, flow rate 2.0 mL min−1), Cu(II), Fe(III) and Pb(II) were retained on the column, then quantitatively eluted by 2 mL 1 mol L−1 nitric acid solution and determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The tolerance limits of electrolytes were very high. The adsorption capacity of AC-AMP was found to be 12.1, 67.1, and 16.2 mg g−1 for Cu(II), Fe(III), and Pb(II), respectively. According to the definition of International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the detection limits (3σ) of this method for Cu(II), Fe(III) and Pb(II) were 0.27, 0.41 and 0.16 μg L−1, respectively. The relative standard deviation under optimum conditions is less than 3.0% (n = 11). The proposed method has been validated by analyzing a certified reference material and successfully applied to the preconcentration and determination of Cu(II), Fe(III), and Pb(II) in actual samples with satisfactory results.