Solid Phase Extraction of Zirconium as Arsenazo(III) Complex on Agar and Spectrophotometric Determination

A new solid phase extraction method for the separation and determination of zirconium using agar as an adsorbent is described. The method is based on the adsorption of zirconium as arsenazo(III) complex on agar in a mini-column, elution with sulfuric acid-acetone mixture and determination by spectrophotometry. The effect of different parameters such as pH, concentration of the reagent, eluting reagent, and volume of the sample, amount of the adsorbent and interfering ions was investigated. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 5-300 ng ml-1 of zirconium under optimum conditions. The limit of detection based on 3Sb was 1.3 ng ml-1 and the relative standard deviation (R.S.D) for ten replicate measurements of 15 and 200 ng ml-1of zirconium was 3.7 and 1.8%, respectively. The method was applied to the determination of zirconium in water and soil samples.