Analytical Sciences


Abstract − Analytical Sciences, 20(1), 231 (2004).

Ultrafiltration and Alumina Adsorption of Micelles for the Preconcentration of Copper(II) in Water
Masataka HIRAIDE  and Tsuyoshi ITOH
Department of Molecular Design and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
Micellar-enhanced ultrafiltration was considered from the viewpoint of trace analysis, by taking copper(II) as an example. Copper(II) cations were collected electrostatically on micelles of sodium dodecyl sulfate, and separated from the mother liquor by ultrafiltration. However, the final solution contained a large amount of surfactant, which caused serious interference in the determination. This problem was overcome by using alumina adsorption, where negatively charged micelles were adsorbed on positively charged alumina particles and then recovered by conventional filtration. The copper was leached from the micelles with 4 mol l-1 nitric acid, leaving the surfactant on the alumina. The proposed method was successfully applied to an analysis of certified reference water samples.