Premium
Preconcentration of mercury on polyaniline expands the horizon for energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence determination
Author(s) -
Remya Devi P. S.,
Suvarna S.,
Ghosh M.,
Kiran Kumar G.,
Verma R.,
Reddy A. V. R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
x‐ray spectrometry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.447
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1097-4539
pISSN - 0049-8246
DOI - 10.1002/xrs.2682
Subject(s) - polyaniline , sorption , detection limit , chemistry , analytical chemistry (journal) , aqueous solution , mercury (programming language) , langmuir , langmuir adsorption model , x ray fluorescence , fluorescence , adsorption , chromatography , polymer , organic chemistry , computer science , polymerization , programming language , physics , quantum mechanics
Hg(II) was sorbed on polyaniline from aqueous solutions, followed by determination using energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry. Distribution coefficient of Hg(II) on polyaniline was about 4 × 10 3 in water, whereas distribution coefficient was 1.2 × 10 4 at 0.1 M HCl and decreased drastically with increase in HCl concentration. Rapid kinetics of sorption was evinced by the 80% uptake within the initial 1 min and quantitative sorption within 5 min of equilibration. The sorption was found to follow Langmuir isotherm model, and the Langmuir capacity was calculated as 19.7 mg g −1 . The ability of polyaniline to form stable and homogeneous pellets facilitated the energy dispersive X‐ray fluorescence determination without recourse to elution. Detection limit of Hg was found to be 22 ng, considering 100 mg pellet of polyaniline. The apparent detection limit was 6 pg, as the preconcentration factor of Hg(II) on polyaniline was 4 × 10 3 . The developed method is at par with the established method for mercury determination, namely, cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry. Accuracy of the method was established by the analysis of the International Atomic Energy Agency reference materials, namely, hair and lichen, for Hg(II). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.