A new coprecipitation method without carrier element for separation and preconcentration of some metal ions at trace levels in water and food samples.

A new simple and sensitive preconcentration, separation and environmentally friendly method based on carrier element free coprecipitation (CEFC) was developed using 4-(2-hydroxybenzylideneamino)-1,2-dihydro-2,3-dimethyl-1-phenylpyrazol-5-one (APSAL) as a new organic co-precipitant to precipitate Cr(3+), Cu(2+), Fe(3+), Pb(2+) and Zn(2+) ions from water and food samples. The levels of the studied elements were detected by flame atomic absorption spectrometry (FAAS). The impact of several analytical parameters, such as pH, sample volume and coprecipitant amount as well as centrifugation rate and time was investigated to recover the examined metal ions. The influence of matrix ions was also tested, and no interferences were observed. The recovery values of the analyte ions were calculated and found to be in the range of 95-101%. The detection limits, corresponding to three times the standard deviation of the blank (N=10), were found to be in the range of 0.2-1.2 μg L(-1). The relative standard deviation (RSD) was calculated to evaluate the precision of the proposed method and was found to be ≤5.0%. The calculated preconcentration factor was 100. The proposed method was successfully applied to separate and preconcentrate trace amounts of ions in several water and food samples. To confirm the accuracy and validate the proposed method, certified reference materials were analyzed with satisfactory results.