Functionalization of chitosan with 3-nitro-4-amino benzoic acid moiety and its application to the collection/concentration of molybdenum in environmental water samples

A chitosan resin functionalized with 3-nitro-4-amino benzoic acid moiety (CCTS-NABA resin) was newly synthesized for the collection/concentration of trace molybdenum by using cross-linked chitosan (CCTS) as base material. The carboxyl group of the moiety was chemically attached to amino group of cross-linked chitosan through amide bond formation. The adsorption behavior of molybdenum as well as other 60 elements on the resin was examined by passing the sample solutions through a mini-column packed with the resin. After the elution of the elements collected on the resin with 1 M HNO3, the eluates were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). TS-NABA resin can adsorb several metal ions, such as vanadium, gallium, arsenic, selenium, silver, bismuth, thorium, tungsten, tin, tellurium, copper, and molybdenum at appropriate pHs. Among these metal ions, only molybdenum could be adsorbed almost completely on the resin at acidic regions. An excellent selectivity toward molybdenum could be obtained at pH 3–4. The adsorption capacity of CCTS-NABA resin for Mo(VI) was 380 mg g−1 resin. Through the column pretreatment, alkali and alkaline earth metals in river water and seawater samples were successfully removed. TS-NABA resin was applied to the adsorption/collection of molybdenum in river water and seawater samples. The concentrations of molybdenum in river water samples were found in the range of 0.84 and 0.95 ppb (ng g−1), whereas molybdenum in seawater was about 9 ppb. The validation of the proposed method was carried out by determining molybdenum in the certified reference materials of SLRS-4, CASS-4, and NASS-5 after passing through the CCTS-NABA resin; the results showed good agreement with the certified values.