Modification and characterization of amberlite XAD-2 with calcein blue for preconcentration and determination of copper(II) from environmental samples by atomic absorption spectroscopy

A chelating resin is produced by coupling a dye calcein blue to Amberlite XAD-2 through an azo spacer. The resulting resin has been characterized by FT-IR, elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studied for the preconcentration and determination of trace Cu(II) from solution samples. The optimum pH for adsorption of copper ions was 6. The sorption capacity of functionalized resin is 27 mg·g^-1. The chelating resin can be reused for 10 cycles without any significant changes in sorption capacity. A recovery of 100% was obtained for Cu(II) when eluted with 0.5 M nitric acid. Scatchard analysis revealed that homogeneous binding sites were formed in the resin. The equilibrium adsorption data of Cu(II) on modified resin were analyzed by Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin models. Based on equilibrium adsorption data the Langmuir, Freundlich and Temkin constants were determined 0.036, 2.196 and 0.348 at pH 6 and 20°C, respectively. The method was applied for Cu(II) assay in environmental samples.