Abstract

Solvent extraction of Ni(II) into a chloroform by using salen[N,N'-Bis (salicylidene)- ethylenediamine] as a ligand has been studied. Salen was synthesized from ethylenediamine and salicylaldehyde by simple condensation reaction in an ethanol. Salen formed a 1 : 1 complex with Ni(II) and its extraction constant was 105.12. For the determination of Ni(II) in sea water samples, some experimental conditions such as pH of solution, amount of salen, acid type and concentration for back extraction, extraction time, and influence of foreign ions were optimized by using a synthetic sea water. The sea water of which the composition was similar to a natural sea water was synthesized in this laboratory. Trace Ni(II) was extracted into the chloroform in the weak basic solution above pH 8. And the nickel could be quantitatively extracted with the concentration of salen higher than 1.2×10-4 mol/L. This concentration was more than 180 times of Ni(II) in the solution with a mole ratio. Real samples of Korean coastal sea water were analyzed under optimized conditions. Even though Ni(II) was not detected in these samples. Recoveries more than 98% were obtained in the samples which 40 ng/mL of Ni(II) was spiked. And detection limit of proposed method was 1.3 ng/mL. From these results, it could be known that salen of this type would be applied for the determination of trace metals as an organic chelating reagent.