A new magnetic ion-imprinted polymer as a highly selective sorbent for determination of cobalt in biological and environmental samples.

A magnetic ion-imprinted polymer (Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-IIP) functionalized with -NH groups for the selective determination of Co(II) ions from environmental and biological samples is presented. This sorbent was synthesized by surface imprinting technique combined with sol-gel process using 3-(2-aminoethylamino) propyltrimethoxysilane (AAPTS) as a functional ligand, tetraethyl orthosilicate as across-linking agent, and Co(II) ion as the template. The prepared magnetic ion-imprinted polymer was characterized by infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-IIP showed higher capacity and selectivity than that of Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-NIP. The important parameters influencing the recovery such as pH, the volume and eluent concentration, contact time, and the amount of sorbent on extraction percentage of Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-IIP were studied and optimized. The linear range (LR), relative standard deviation(RSD) and limit of detection (LOD=3 S(b)/m) for flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination of Co(II) ion, after its selective extraction by the prepared IIP polymer, were evaluated as 1-130 µg L(-1), 1.22% and 0.15 µg L(-1), respectively. The maximum capacity of Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-IIP and Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-NIP is 35.21 mg g(-1) and 10.34 mg g(-1), respectively. The separation factor of Fe3O4@TiO2@SiO2-IIP for Co(II)/Pb(II), Co(II)/Ni(II), and Co(II)/Cd(II) are 41.17, 79.74, and 56.48, respectively. In addition, the spent magnetic ion-imprinted polymer can be refreshed by simply washing with an aqueous HNO3 solution, and there is no significant decrease in adsorption capacity after a test of upto seven cycles, demonstrating that the Fe3O4@ TiO2@SiO2-IIP is stable and reusable.