Silica gel–polyethylene glycol as a new adsorbent for solid phase extraction of cobalt and nickel and determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

In this paper a novel solid phase extraction method to determine Co(II) and Ni(II) using silica gel–polyethylene glycol (Silica–PEG) as a new adsorbent is described. The method is based on the adsorption of cobalt and nickel ions in alkaline media on polyethylene glycol–silica gel in a mini-column, elution with nitric acid and determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The adsorption conditions such as NaOH concentration, sample volume and amount of adsorbent were optimized in order to achieve highest sensitivity. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 0.5–200.0 ng mL−1 for Co(II) and 2.0–100.0 ng mL−1 for Ni(II) in the initial solution. The limit of detection based on 3Sb was 0.37 ng mL−1 for Co(II) and 0.71 ng mL−1 for Ni(II). The relative standard deviations (R.S.D.) for ten replicate measurements of 40 ng mL−1 of Co(II), and Ni(II) were 3.24 and 3.13%, respectively. The method was applied to determine Co(II) and Ni(II) in black tea, rice flour, sesame seeds, tap water and river water samples.