Determination of total iron in food samples after flow injection preconcentration on polyurethane foam functionalized with N,N-bis(salicylidene)-1,3-propanediamine.

A highly selective flow injection sorption system was developed for the fast determination of total iron in food samples. Iron (III) was reduced to iron (II) by ascorbic acid and preconcentrated on a mini-column packed with polyurethane foam (PUF) functionalized with N,N-bis(salicylidene)-1,3-propanediamine (SPDA). The retained Fe (II) was eluted with hydrochloric acid and subsequently reacted to 2,4,6-tri(2'-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (TPTZ) then measured at 593 nm. The procedure has resulted preconcentration factor 36, sample frequency 20 h(-1) and detection limit 18 μg L(-1). The precision (RSD) was found to be 5.7% and 3.1% at concentration levels 0.1 and 5.0 μg mL(-1) iron (II), respectively. Finally, the method was successfully applied to determination of total iron in reference material and food samples.