A sensitive technique for the determination of trace Co(II) in various samples after column preconcentration by adsorbing onto silica gel loaded with 1-nitroso-2-naphthol was developed. Several experimental conditions, such as pH of sample solution, the amount of silica gel loaded with 1-nitroso-2-naphthol, the flow rate for adsorption and so forth, were optimized. The interfering effects of diverse concomitant ions were investigated. Fe(III) interfered with more than any other ions, but the interference by Fe(III) was completely eliminated by adjusting the amount of silica gel loaded with 1-nitroso-2-naphthol to 0.30 g. The dynamic range, the correlation coefficient (R 2 ), and the detection limit obtained by the proposed technique were 3.0-140.0 ng mL -1 , 0.9942, and 1.81 ng mL -1 , respectively. For validating the technique, the aqueous samples (tap water, reservoir water, stream water, and wastewater) and the plastic samples were used as real samples. Recovery yields of 93.0-107.0% were obtained. These measured data were not different from ICP-MS data at the 95% confidence level by F test. Based on the results of the experiment, it has been found that the proposed technique can be applied to the determination of Co(II) in various real samples.