Hybrid inorganic–organic sol–gel @foam for a new development of solid phase extraction of heavy metals

In this research study, a novel nanocomposite composed of aminopropyl-based hybrid inorganic–organic sol–gel@Ni foam (AP-HIO/SG-NC @ Ni foam) was synthesized and then applied in a new development of solid phase extraction technique called the “swimming petal shape sorbent-based solid phase extraction” (SPSS-SPE) for simultaneous separation and preconcentration of lead, cadmium, cobalt, and nickel metals ions from aqueous solutions. During the analytical process, the essential parameters such as pH, size of the petal-shaped sorbent, swimming time, desorption conditions, sample volume, and ionic strength on the extraction efficiencies of the target analytes were investigated. Under optimal experimental conditions, the linear ranges (LR) of 0.5–1000 (µg L⁻¹) for lead and 1–1000 (µg L⁻¹) for nickel, cadmium, cobalt in water, the LR of 1–1000 (µg L⁻¹) were obtained for analytes in soli, and the LR of 1–1000 (µg L⁻¹) for lead and cadmium and 1–1250 (µg L⁻¹) for nickel and cobalt were achieved in blood sample. Moreover, the LOD values (S/N = 3) of 0.182–0.314 (µg L⁻¹), 0.292–0.314 (µg L⁻¹), 0.295–0.313 (µg L⁻¹) were obtained for water, soil, and blood for analytes respectively. The procedure's intra-day and inter-day precision (%) were less than ≤ 2.5 and ≤ 3.2, respectively. The sensitive and high-potential AP-HIO/SG-NC @ Ni foam-SPSS-SPE was successfully applied to analyze water, soil, and blood samples. The analytical greenness metric approach was also applied to evaluate the greenness of the proposed method, AGREE.