Acetylacetone phenylhydrazone functionalized polyurethane foam: Determination of copper, zinc and manganese in environmental samples and pharmaceutics using flame atomic absorption spectrometry

In the present work, acetylacetone phenylhydrazone (AAPH) was chemically anchored to polyurethane foam (PUF) via azo coupling of the toluidine NH2 in PUF to active CH2 in acetylacetone (AA) and further reaction to phenylhydrazine to give new solid phase extraction (SPE) sorbent for determination of Cu(II), Zn(II) and Mn(II) in natural and pharmaceutical samples. The AAPH-PUF was characterized by UV-VIS, IR, H1 NMR, elemental and TGA analysis. Optimal experimental conditions were at pH 5-6, shaking time 20 min, sample flow rate 1.0 mL min−1, and desorption by 10 mL from 0.5 mol L−1 hydrochloric acid. The limit of detection (3σ) was found to be 0.10, 0.12 and 0.19 μg L−1 for Cu(II), Zn(II) and Mn(II), respectively. A preconcentration factor of 100 has been achieved for all elements. Precision (RSD%) was found to be 6.3%, 5.3% and 3.2% (n = 5), respectively. Successful application was achieved for environmental samples (tap water, olive leaves, and fish liver) and pharmaceutical formulation. The obtained recovery varied between 90.8% and 96.8% and RSD was under 6.7%.