The use of a polymer inclusion membrane for separation and preconcentration of orthophosphate in flow analysis

Abstract

A highly sensitive flow analysis system has been developed for the trace determination of reactive phosphate in natural waters, which uses a polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) with Aliquat 336 as the carrier for on-line analyte separation and preconcentration. The system operates under flow injection (FI) and continuous flow (CF) conditions. Under optimal FI conditions the system is characterised by a linear concentration range between 0.5 and 1000μgL-1P, a sampling rate of 10h-1, a limit of detection of 0.5μgL-1P and RSDs of 3.2% (n=10, 100μgL-1) and 7.7% (n=10, 10μgL-1). Under CF conditions with 10min stop-flow time and sample solution flow rate of 1.32mLmin-1 the flow system offers a limit ..