Aspects of surface modification, structure characterization, thermal stability and metal selectivity properties of silica gel phases-immobilized-amine derivatives Original Research Article

Four silica gel phases-bound-amine derivatives (I–IV) were prepared based on chemical immobilization technique. The surface modification was identified by determination of the coverage values in mmol g−1 via thermal desorption method (1.463–1.807) and elemental analysis of nitrogen and carbon contents (1.089–2.456). Structure characterization related to immobilization of the amine derivatives was accomplished and evaluated by means of infrared (IR) and secondary ion mass spectrometric (SIMS) technique. The modified silica gel phases (I–IV) along with their interaction products with copper(II) were also examined by electron impact mass spectrometric analysis (EI-MS) as a method for evaluation of their thermal stability and structure elucidation. Potentiometric titration as a method of characterization was applied for the modified silica gel phases (II–IV) and their copper(II)-adduct. A series of bi- and trivalent metal ions were selected to focus more aspects of the selectivity properties incorporated into the modified silica gel phases for binding and interaction with these metals based on determination of the distribution coefficient and separation factor. The results of these evaluation processes were found to prove higher selectivity and preference of these four phases for binding with lead(II) and cadmium(II) compared to other metal ions.