Synthesis of chitosan-based resins modified with tris(2-aminoethyl)amine moiety and its application to collection/concentration and determination of trace mercury by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry

A novel chitosan-based chelating resin modified with tris(2-aminoethyl)amine moiety (CCTS-TAA) was synthesized, and its characteristics in the collection/concentration of mercury was examined. The synthesized resin showed good adsorption toward mercury in a wide pH range, and the adsorbed mercury can be easily eluted by using 2 M HNO3 without any addition of complexing agent. The resin was then packed in a mini-column and the mini-column was installed on a computer-controlled automated-pretreatment (Auto-Pret) system coupled with inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) for on-line mercury collection and determination at trace level.