Synthesize of silver-nanoparticles by plant extract and its application for preconcentration of cadmium followed by flame atomic absorption spectrometry

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Mentha pulegium leaves extract was used as a green reducing agent for the synthesis of silver-nanoparticles. The synthesized silver-nanoparticles were characterized by UV–VIS spectrophotometry, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray spectroscopy and used as an adsorbent for preconcentration of trace levels of cadmium (ІІ). After the desorption of cadmium (ІІ) in 5 mol L^–1 formic acid, the desorbent solution was aspirated into the flame atomic absorption spectrometry for the determination of cadmium. In order to optimize the experimental condition, a response surface methodology based on central composite design was used. The optimum conditions are: pH: 8.6, amounts of adsorbent: 30 mg, 10 min extraction time and desorption time of 2 min. Under the optimum condition, the calibration curve was linear in the range of 5–200 μg L^–1 cadmium (ІІ) ion with a correlation coefficient of 0.9995. The limit of detection was 1.1 μg L^–1 and the relative standard deviation for 25 μg L^–1 cadmium (ІІ) ion was 3.0% (n = 5). In order to check the applicability of the proposed method, different real samples were analyzed. Also, the accuracy of this method was successfully checked by the analysis of certified reference material and spike tests.

KEYWORDS:

• Silver nanoparticles
• Mentha pulegium leaves extract
• solid phase extraction
• analysis
• flame atomic absorption spectrometry
• cadmium

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ferdowsi University of Mashhad [grant number G333.3].