Selective extraction and detection of noble metal based on ionic liquid immobilized silica gel surface using ICP-OES

In this study, an efficiently employed ionic liquid combined with commercially available silica gel (SG–ClPrNTf2) was developed for selective detection of gold(III) by use of inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The selectivity of SG–ClPrNTf2 was evaluated towards seven metal ions, including Y(III), Mn(II), Zr(IV), Pb(II), Mg(II), Pd(II) and Au(III). Based on pH study and distribution coefficient values, the SG–ClPrNTf2 phase was found to be the most selective towards Au(III) at pH 2 as compared to other metal ions. The adsorption isotherm of Au(III) on the SG–ClPrNTf2 phase followed the Langmuir model with adsorption capacity of 59.48 mg g−1, which was highly in agreement with experimental data of adsorption isotherm study. The kinetics study indicated that Au(III) adsorption kinetics data were well fit with the pseudo-second-order kinetic model on the basis of correlation coefficient fitting (0.996) and adsorption capacity agreement (62.26 mg g−1). Furthermore, SG–ClPrNTf2 phase was effectively performed for the determination of Au(III) in real water samples with satisfactory results.