On-line separation and preconcentration of silver ion on amidino-thiourea immobilized glass beads packing in flow injection analysis with atomic absorption spectrometric detection

Amidino-thiourea immobilized glass beads (AGB I) were prepared and used as the microcolumn packing for the flow injection (FI) on-line separation and preconcentration of Ag(I) coupled with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) determination. Base metal ions and anions with a concentration of 2.0 mg mL(-1) had no interference with the determination of Ag(I). The limit of detection (LOD) of Ag(I) for a preconcentration time of 60 s with a sampling flow rate of 5.0 mL min(-1) for 40.0 ng mL(-1) of Ag(I) were 0.50 ng mL(-1) with the peak-height absorbance mode and 1.26 ng mL(-1) with the peak-area absorbance mode, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSD) of 7 replicate determinations were 0.9% and 0.7% for the peak-height absorbance (H) and the peak-area absorbance (A), respectively. The method was successfully applied to the determination of Ag(I) in ore samples.