Iranian chemists from Sistan and Balouchestan University in association with researchers from the Tehran Science and Research Branch of the Islamic Azad University and the University of New South Wales in Australia produced toxic ion nanosorbents with high sorption capacity.
High sensitivity of nanosorbents to low concentrations of toxic ions is among the advantages of the nanosorbents.
Despite the common use of atomic sorption device in the measurement of toxic ions due to their low price, they have very limited measurement accuracy in low concentration of ions. However, this research provides an opportunity to measure low concentration of toxic ions by using the same device by proposing a method based on pre-concentration of ion concentration. Among the advantages of the method, mention can be made of increasing the performance of sorption polymer for toxic ions by coating it on the surface of nanoparticles and the simplicity of the separation of sorbent from matrix by using powerful magnet. As a result of these advantages, reduction in the time of analysis and in the cost of the test has been achieved due to the ability to recover the sorbent.
Iron magnetic nanoparticles have been used in this research as sorbent for the pre-concentration of lead in contaminated water. To this end, the surface of nanoparticles have been coated with craved polymer, which adsorbs only lead. After the exclusive sorption of the lead, the concentration is determined with atomic sorption device in complicated matrices, including industrial contaminated water.
This research studies the effect of various parameters such as pH value, sorption time and release time. Results of the research show that the sorbent has high ability in the sorption of high amount of lead, and it has high sensitivity in low concentrations (concentrations about 0.9 ng/mL).
Results of the research have been published in Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 20, issue 5, 25 September 2014, pp. 2657-2662.