Preconcentration and separation of iron in water by coflotation using lead(II) hexamethylenedithiocarbamate

An atomic absorption spectrometric study of the applicability of lead(II) hexamethylenedithiocarbamate, Pb(HMDTC)2, for colloid flotation separation and preconcentration of iron from water is presented. The experimental conditions for the successful iron enrichment before atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) are optimized. Using Pb(HMDTC)2, as a precipitate collector, iron could be enriched and separated from a large volume of diluted aqueous solutions and then determinated by AAS. The applicability of the proposed procedure have been verified by analyses of fresh water samples with the method of standard additions, as well as by comparing the results obtained by AAS with those obtained by inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry. The detection limit of iron using this method is 0.30 μg/l.