Use of nanoporous Cu(II) ion imprinted polymer as a new sorbent for preconcentration of Cu(II) in water, biological, and agricultural samples and its determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry.

A new and selective Cu(ll) ion imprinted polymer was prepared by formation of 1-(2-pyridylazo)-2-naphthol complex for selective extraction and preconcentration of Cu ions. Polymerization was performed with ethylene glycol dimethacrylate as a crosslinking monomer and methacrylic acid as a functional monomer in the presence of 2,2'-azobis(isobutyronitrile) as an initiator via a bulk polymerization method. The Cu(ll) imprinted polymeric particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and IR spectrometry. The imprint Cu ion was removed from the polymeric matrix using 2 M HNO3. Optimum pH for maximum sorption was 5-8. Maximum sorbent capacity and the enrichment factor for Cu(ll) were 11.3 mg/g and 100, respectively. The RSD and LOD of the method were evaluated as +/-4.3% and 8.7 ng/L, respectively. The proposed method is simple, highly selective, and sensitive and can be applied to the determination of ultratrace amounts of Cu in water, biological, and agricultural samples.