Chitosan, an N-deacetylation product of chitin, is one of the useful chelating polymers, and is capable of adsorbing a number of metal ions. Muzzarelli et al. have reported that chitosan without cross-linking can adsorb transition-metal ions from aqueous solutions at neutral pH, 1,2 and other researchers have reported that chitosan can adsorb Hg(II), Cu(II), Cr(III), Pb(II), UO2 + and Cd(II). [3][4][5][6][7][8] However, the adsorption behavior of metal ions has not yet been investigated in detail, though chitosan seems to possess a promising ability of metal collection.Non-cross-linked chitosan can be easily soluble in some acidic media. Such a characteristic is one of the serious disadvantages from a practical viewpoint of metal collection and concentration. Therefore, several types of chemically cross-linked chitosan have been prepared and their metal adsorption properties have been examined. Cross-linking can make chitosan hardly soluble in acidic media. Ohga et al. reported that cross-linked chitosan, which was prepared by cross-linking with (chloromethyl)oxyrane after complexation of chitosan with metal ions, can act as effective adsorbents for Cu(II) and Hg(II), 9 and Inoue et al. reported the adsorption behavior of 15 elements on cross-linked chitosan by a batchwise method.10,11 Koyama et al. and Kurita et al. also synthesized a cross-linked chitosan with glutaraldehyde, and examined the adsorption behavior of Cu. 12,13 Further, Rorrer et al. examined adsorption isotherms of Cd(II) on porous chitosan beads crosslinked with glutaraldehyde at 25˚C and pH 6.5 over the concentration range 1 -1690 mg l -1 .14 Such studies mainly examined the adsorption behavior of several metal ions at ppm levels on a cross-linked chitosan by batchwise equilibration techniques, and did not aim to collect and concentrate trace amounts of metal ions at ppb and subppbs (1 ppb = 1 ng ml -1 ). Further, few papers have reported so far about the desorption and recovery of metal ions adsorbed on cross-linked and non-cross-linked chitosan.In this work, the authors examined in detail, for the first time, the adsorption behavior of a number of elements (60 elements) at the 10 ng ml -1 level by a column pretreatment method using commercially available high-porous cross-linked chitosan beads (CHITOPEARL AL-01) (Fuji Spinning Co., Ltd. Tokyo, Japan), and found the useful ability of the cross-linked chitosan as a packing material for collecting and concentrating trace amounts of metal ions in river-water samples. Furthermore, the determination of six oxoanions in river-water samples (reference materials distributed by the Japan Society for Analytical Chemistry: JAC 0031 and JAC 0032) was carried out using air-segmented flow injection/ICP-MS (AFI/ICP-MS) after preconcentration with a chitosan column. The analytical results obtained for the determination of oxoanions agreed well with other literature values. [15][16][17]
Experimental
InstrumentationThe ICP-MS system used for the determination of metal ions was a Model SPQ 8000H (Seiko Instrum...