Recently, voltammetric study of the transfer of heavy metal ions across organic solvent/water (O/W) interface assisted by ionophores or organic extractants has been the subjects of research interest by several authors. Such ionophores as 1,10-phenanthrolines 1,2,9-11,15 , 2,2′-bipyridine 2-4 , dithizone 5 , ethylenediamines 6 , 2,2′,2″-terpryridine 7,15 , polyethylene glycols 8 , quinolin-8-ol 12 , N,N′-bis-[2-(diphenylphosphino)phenyl]propane-1,3-diamine 13 , methylenebis (diphenylphosphineoxide) 14 , 5,6-diphenyl-3-(2-pyridyl)-1,2,4-triazine 15 , and 6,7-dimethyl-2,3-di(2-pyridyl)quinoxaline 16 , have been studied. We have studied the transfer of heavy metal ions, such as Cd 2+ , Pb 2+ , Hg 2+ , Pd 2+ , and Cu 2+ ions, across nitrobenzene(NB)/W and 1,2-dichloroethane(DCE)/W interface assisted by macrocyclic polythiaether, 1,4,7,10,13,16-hexathiacyclooctadecane (HTCO) present in the O-phase. The voltammetric wave of HTCOassisted transfer of Pb 2+ ion at NB/W interface has been shown to be a reversible process facilitated by the formation of a 1:1 Pb 2+ -HTCO complex in NB-phase. 17 It has been shown that ion-transfer voltammetry of the HTCO-assisted ion-transfer can be applied to the study of the equilibrium and dynamic properties of metal ion complexes in W-phase. 18-20 Also, it has been shown that ion-transfer stripping voltammetry, in which the HTCO-assisted anodic preconcentration of the ions into a thin organic gel layer followed by cathodic dissolution back to W-phase, can be applied to the trace determination of heavy metal ions at ppb level. 21 Recently, Girault and co-workers have studied the transfer of Pb
ExperimentalChemicals HTCO was obtained from Aldrich and used as received. n-Tetrapentylammonium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate (TPnATClPB) was prepared as previously described. 17 n-Tetrapentylammonium chloride (TPnACl) and NB were obtained from Wako and purified as previously mentioned.17 n-Tetrabutylammonium tetraphenylborate (TBATPB) was prepared according to the reported method.23 n-Tetrabutylammonium chloride (TBACl) was obtained from Wako and purified according to the reported method. 23 Other chemicals were of analytical grade and used as received.
Ion-transfer voltammetric measurementsThe transfer of heavy metal ions assisted by HTCO across NB/W interface was studied by means of cyclic voltammetry. The electrochemical system used for the voltammetric measurements is represented by cell (I): 1179ANALYTICAL SCIENCES DECEMBER 1999, VOL. 15 1999