An integrated reaction-retention and spectrophotometric detection flow system for the determination of nickel

Abstract

An integrated flow-through photometric sensor for the determination of nickel in real samples of various origins has been developed. The sensor is based on the reaction of Ni(II) with 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol (PAN) immobilized on a cationic resin which was placed in a flow-cell using a spectrophotometer tuned at 566 nm as detector. The Ni(II) ion from the sample injected into the carrrier stream (pH = 5.0) of a monochannel continuous flow system reacts with the immobilized chromogenic reagent to form a red chelate which remains on the active solid support and generates the analytical signal. When this reached its maximum value the Ni(II)-PAN chelate was destroyed using 1 M H₂SO₄ as eluents, leaving the sorbed PAN untouched. The response of the sensor was linear in the three concentration ranges assayed: 0.3–4.0, 0.1–1.6 and 0.05–0.8 μg mL^–1 for sample volumes of 100, 400 and 800 μL, respectively, and the R.S.D.(%) (n = 10) were 1.80(100 μL), 3.04(400 μL) and 2.29(800 μL). The sensor showed an excellent selectivity which could also be increased with a simple on-line modification to avoid interference from copper. It was applied to a variety of real samples with very good results in all cases.