Synthesis and characterisation of nano-pore antimony imprinted polymer and its use in the extraction and determination of antimony in water and fruit juice samples

A solid phase extraction method using antimony ion imprinted polymer (IIP) sorbent combined with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) was developed for the extraction and speciation of antimony. The sorbent has been synthesised in the presence of Sb(III) and ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) using styrene as the monomer and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA) as the cross linker. The imprinted Sb(III) ions were removed by leaching with HCl (50% v/v) and the polymer was characterised by FT-IR and scanning electron microscopy. The maximum sorption capacity of the IIP for Sb(III) ions was found to be 6.7 mg g−1. With preconcentration of 60 mL of sample, an enhancement factor of 232 and detection limit of 3.9 ng L−1 was obtained. Total antimony was determined after the reduction of Sb(V) to Sb(III). The method was successfully applied to the determination of antimony species in water samples and total antimony in fruit juices.