Separation and preconcentration of inorganic Se species in tap and natural waters using unfunctionalized nanosilica as sorption material in dispersive micro-solid phase extraction

Abstract

A highly sensitive and selective method based on dispersive micro-solid phase extraction (D-μ-SPE) technique was developed for the determination of inorganic Se species. A very simple and fast preconcentration procedure involving the use of pure nanosilica for the extraction of Se(IV) complexed with ammonium pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (APDC) was applied. Elution of the retained Se(IV) species from nanosilica was achieved with ethyl acetate followed by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry determination. For speciation analysis, Se(VI) was selectively quantified based on the difference between the concentrations of total inorganic Se and Se(IV) after a pre-reduction step. The interaction between the analyte and the extractant was characterized by FT-IR and an adsorption isotherm study. A 90% extraction efficiency was achieved after optimization of all factors concerning the extraction and elution steps, such as pH, ionic strength and type of chelating agent. Optimized conditions included pH = 2.0, 4.9 μmol L−1 APDC and the use of 1 mg nanosilica as adsorbent. A limit of detection of 1.4 ng L−1, a relative standard deviation of 4.8% and a 90-fold enhancement factor were obtained with 10 mL of sample. The developed method was finally applied to water samples from different origins and compositions, including rain, tap, underground, and sea.