|
Abstract
|
Cadmium (Cd) is an industrial waste or by-product, which has a great environmental
concern. Cd is used in many industrial processes, such as a constituent of easily fusible alloys,
soft solder, electroplating and deoxidizer in nickel plating, engraving processes, electrodes for
vapor lamps, photoelectric cells, and nickel-cadmium storage batteries [1]. Although essential
function of cadmium on human body is not clearly known, it may cause toxic effects even at
very low doses. This toxicity could be due to a direct or an indirect interaction taking place
between the metal and the biological system, as it could be the form of both extracellularly
and intracellularly. Cadmium acts as inhibitor of sulphydryl enzymes and has an affinity for
other ligands in cells such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, phosphatyl, cysteinyl and histidyl side
chains of proteins [2]. In cancer studies, it has been reported that this metal is a mutagen in
mammalian [3,4] and at concentrations higher than the maximum permissible level, it may
result in prostate, renal and lung cancers [5]. In the present study, a Fe3O4@salicylic acid
nanocomposite was synthesized and characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM),
powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy
techniques. A solid phase extraction method was developed for the separation and
preconcentration of cadmium(II) ions by using the synthesized material. The method is based
on the adsorption of cadmium(II) on Fe3O4@salicylic acid nanocomposite. The extracted
cadmium was determined by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after desorption with a
acidic sloution. The optimum experimental conditions for the cadmium assay were
investigated. Under the optimized conditions, a calibration graph was linear in the range of
0.2–30 ng.mL-1 with a detection limit of 0.386 ng.mL-1. The method was successfully applied
to determine cadmium in several
|