Analysis of rare earth elements in seawater by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry after pre-concentration using TSK™-HD-MW-CNTs (highly dispersive multi-walled carbon nanotubes)

►Highly dispersive MWCNTs can give higher adsorption capacity after strong acid oxidation. ► The leakage of HDMWCNTs in the column was prevented by the attachment to TSK beads. ► With TSK-HDMWCNTs extractions, we could obtain 0.01-0.159 pg/ml LOD for REEs in seawater.