Sulfasalazine monitoring at trace levels in the environment by a solid phase extraction method using surfactant modified clinoptilolite

Many factories have been established to produce the necessary pharmaceuticals in huge levels. Pharmaceuticals may be leaked to the environment from the factories or/and homes to the environment, and may produce many problems for humans, living creatures and ecosystems. Therefore, development of efficient monitoring methods to understand the level of the pollution is mandatory to control the sources of leakage.Sulfasalazine (SZ) is effective for rheumatoid arthritis and controlling active ulcerative colitis or crohn’s disease. However, it can produce adverse reactions which may lead to disorder of the hemopoietic system and potential carcinogenic effects. SZ has been studied and determined in various samples by high performance liquid chromatography, spectrophotometry and luminescence [1].In the present work a zeolite, clinoptilolite, was modified in basic media by cetylpyridinium chloride to prepare an adsorbent. The adsorbent was characterized by scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. By using the adsorbent, a solid phase extraction-spectrophotometric analytical procedure was developed for trace determination of SZ. The sample solutions (10.0 mL) containing SZ were analyzed at pH equal to 10.0 by the modified zeolite. Then, SZ was eluted from the solid sorbent by 0.5 mL of a basic ethanolic solution, and was analyzed at 450 nm. Affecting parameters were investigated and optimum condition was obtained. Under optimum condition, Beer’s law was obeyed in the range of 8-2000 ng mL-1 of SZ. Limit of detection for the method was found as 1.6 ng mL-1. Effects of various species on the determination of SZ were studied. SZ concentrations as 80 and 1600 ng mL-1 were selected and recoveries were found as 93.4 and 99.6%, respectively. The SZ determination method was used to monitor SZ in various environmental samples.