In the present work, multiwalled carbon nanotube (MWCNT) chemically modified with (3-mercaptopropyl) silanetriolate is efficiently used for the solid-phase extraction of Cu(2+), Ag(+), Cd(2+), Pb(2+), Zn(2+) and Mn(2+) ions prior to their flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination. The influences of the various analytical parameters, including pH, amounts of solid phase, sample volume and eluent conditions and so on, on the recoveries of target analytes were investigated and optimized by one at a time optimization method. The influences of alkaline, alkaline earth and some transition metals on the adsorption and elution of the analytes were also examined. The detection limits for all understudied metal ions were between 1.4 and 2.8 ng mL(-1) (3Sb, n = 10). The evaluation of the thermodynamic parameters such as enthalpy (positive value), Gibbs free energy (negative value) in addition to high value of entropy shows the endothermic and spontaneous nature of sorption process. Following the optimization of variables, the adsorption process follows the intraparticle kinetic model with R (2) of 0.98 and the Langmuir isotherm with high correlation coefficient (R (2) > 0.95). The procedure was applied for the analytes determination in the food samples with satisfactory results (recoveries >95% and relative standard deviation's (RSD) lower than 4%).
Keywords: Heavy metal; atomic absorption spectrometry; multiwalled carbon nanotubes.