An ion-imprinted functionalized silica gel sorbent prepared by a surface imprinting technique combined with a sol-gel process for selective solid-phase extraction of cadmium(II).

A new ion-imprinted thiol-functionalized silica gel sorbent was synthesized by a surface imprinting technique in combination with a sol-gel process for selective on-line, solid-phase extraction of Cd(II). The Cd(II)-imprinted thiol-functionalized silica sorbent was characterized by FT-IR, the static adsorption-desorption experiment, and the dynamic adsorption-desorption method. The maximum static adsorption capacity of the ion-imprinted functionalized sorbent was 284 micromol g(-1). The largest selectivity coefficient for Cd(II) in the presence of Pb(II) was over 220. The static uptake capacity and selectivity coefficient of the ion-imprinted functionalized sorbent are higher than those of the nonimprinted sorbent. The breakthrough capacity and dynamic capacity of the imprinted functionalized silica gel sorbent for 4 mg L(-1) of Cd(II) at 5.2 mL min(-1) of sample flow rate were 11.7 and 64.3 micromol g(-1), respectively. No remarkable effect of sample flow rate on the dynamic capacity was observed as the sample flow rate increased from 1.7 to 6.8 mL min(-1). The imprinted functionalized silica gel sorbent offered a fast kinetics for the adsorption and desorption of Cd(II). The prepared ion-imprinted functionalized sorbent was shown to be promising for on-line, solid-phase extraction coupled with flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of trace cadmium in environmental and biological samples. All competitive ions studied did not interfere with the determination of Cd(II). With a sample loading flow rate of 8.8 mL min(-1) for 45-s preconcentration, an enhancement factor of 56, and a detection limit (3sigma) of 0.07 microg L(-1) were achieved at a sampling frequency of 55 h(-1). The precision (RSD) for 11 replicate on-line sorbent extractions of 8 mug L(-1) Cd(II) was 0.9%. The sorbent also offered good linearity (r = 0.9997) for on-line, solid-phase extraction of trace Cd(II).