Abstract

A poly(vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene)-based polymer inclusion membrane (PIM) using Cyphos® IL 101 (i.e. trihexyl(tetradecyl)phosphonium chloride) as the carrier and 2-nitrophenyl octyl ether as a plasticizer in a mass ratio of 55/35/10 was employed for the on-line extractive separation of V(V) prior to its spectrophotometric determination in a flow injection analysis (FIA) system using xylenol orange as the colorimetric reagent. The selectivity of the membrane allowed the determination of V(V) in sulfate solutions in the presence of a variety of cations and anions. The interference of molybdenum(VI) was eliminated by off-line extraction using the same PIM. A univariate sequential optimization of the newly developed FIA system was conducted and under optimal conditions the system is characterized by a linear concentration range of 0.5–8.0 mg L−1, detection limit of 0.08 mg L−1 and sample throughput of 4 h−1. The relative standard deviation at the 3 mg L−1 level of V(V) was 2.9% based on 8 replicate determinations. The membrane was stable, which was reflected by the standard deviation value for determinations over three consecutive days (24 determinations of 3 mg L−1 V (V)) of 3.6%. The newly developed FIA system was applied to the determination of V(V) in water and dietary supplements samples and a good agreement with inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry was observed.