Application of silica gel organofunctionalized with 3(1-imidazolyl)propyl in an on-line preconcentration system for the determination of copper by FAAS

This study presents a new procedure for the determination of trace levels of copper(II) in an aqueous matrix, through flow injection (FI) on-line preconcentration with a minicolumn packed with silica gel modified with 3(1-imidazolyl)propyl groups. After the preconcentration stage, the analyte was eluted with a HNO3 solution and determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The measurements of the analytical signals were carried out as peak area and peak height with the objective of evaluating the most appropriate absorption measurement for the proposed method. Four procedures to calculate the experimental enrichment factor (EF) were also studied. For a preconcentration time of 90 s the enrichment factors found in this study varied between 19.5–25.8 and 36.2–42.2 for peak area and peak height, respectively. The precision of the proposed method was calculated for a solution containing 20 μg l−1 of Cu(II), when 11.2 ml of solution was preconcentrated (n=7), and their respective relative standard deviation (R.S.D.) values were 1.2 and 1.4% for peak area and peak height, respectively. The detection limits obtained were 0.4 and 0.2 μg l−1 of Cu(II) for peak area and peak height, respectively, with a preconcentration time of 90 s. The on-line preconcentration system accuracy was evaluated through a recovery test on the aqueous samples and analysis of a certified material.