A porous sintered material consisting of Presep PolyChelate as a chelating resin and particulate polyethylene as a thermoplastic binder for solid-phase extraction of trace elements.

Cylinder-type and disk-type sintered materials consisting of Presep PolyChelate, which is a commercially available chelating resin immobilizing carboxymethylated polyethyleneimine as a functional group, and particulate polyethylene as a thermoplastic binder were prepared using a polymer sintering technique. The sintered materials had a continuously porous structure. The sintering process at 130 °C for 20 min did not affect the ability of the chelating resin in the sintered materials; the selectivity of the sintered material was almost the same as that of the particulate chelating resin which was not sintered. The sintering materials could quantitatively extract 11 kinds of trace elements, namely Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, Ti, V, and Zn, at pH 5.5. When the disk-type sintered material was used, the recoveries of these elements remained almost constant at a flow rate of at least 50 mL min-1; the extracted elements could be eluted using 10 mL of 3 mol L-1 nitric acid at a flow rate of 5 mL min-1. Solid-phase extraction using the disk-type sintered material was applied to the separation and preconcentration of trace elements prior to their inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometric determination. The method was applicable to analyses of certified reference materials (EnviroMAT ES-L-1 ground water and EU-L-3 waste water) and a commercially available table salt.

Potential of Presep(®) PolyChelate as a chelating resin: comparative study with some aminocarboxylic acid-type resins.

The potential of Presep(®) PolyChelate as a chelating resin was studied in detail. The chelating resin with extraction capacity for Cu of 0.30 mmol L(-1) could quantitatively extract Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mo, Ni, Pb, V, and Zn at pH 4 or 5.5; however, only very scant amounts of Na, K, Mg, and Ca were captured at pH levels below 7. The quantitative extraction could be achieved in 100 - 1000 mL of artificial seawater and at a flow rate of 3 - 30 mL min(-1). The performance of Presep(®) PolyChelate was compared to the other aminocarboxylic acid-type chelating resins, including Nobias Chelate-PA1, Chelex 100, Muromac B-1, Lewatit TP 207, and NTA Superflow, under the same conditions. The solid-phase extraction of the nine elements in the certified reference material (ES-L-1, ground water) and a commercially available table salt was also demonstrated.