Synthesis and application of thiolated mesoporous silicas for sorption, preconcentration and determination of platinum Mariusz Barczak a, * , Joanna Dobrzy  nska a , Monika Oszust a , Ewa Skwarek a , Jaroslaw Ostrowski b , Emil Zie ˛ ba c , Piotr Borowski a , Ryszard Dobrowolski a a Faculty of Chemistry, Maria Curie-Sklodowska University, Maria Curie-Sklodowska Sq. 3/536, 20-031 Lublin, Poland b Fertilizers Research Institute, Analytical Department, Al. Tysia ˛ clecia Pa nstwa Polskiego 13A, 24-110 Pulawy, Poland c Zoology and Ecology Department, SEM Laboratory, John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin, Kra snicka St. 102, 20-718 Lublin, Poland highlights graphical abstract  A thiol-functionalized organosilica sorbents were synthesized and characterized.  The sorbents were used in the sorp- tion process of Pt(IV) ions.  Excellent adsorption capacity with respect to Pt(IV) ions was achieved.  Pt(IV) preconcentration and AAS determination using the sorbents was validated. article info Article history: Received 29 July 2015 Received in revised form 7 June 2016 Accepted 9 June 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Mesoporous silica Platinum adsorption Platinum recovery Heavy metal ions Adsorption Atomic absorption spectrometry abstract Thiol-functionalized mesoporous silicas were synthesized by co-condensation of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and mercaptopropyltriethoxysilane (MPTES). All materials exhibit high values of specific surface area (456e857 m 2 /g), pore volume (0.5e1.3 cm 3 ), and pore sizes (2.5e5.3 nm). These values gradually decrease with the increasing amount of MPTES. The obtained thiolated mesoporous silicas were used as sorbents of Pt(IV) species from water solution. The obtained materials exhibit an extremely good ability to remove Pt(IV) ions in the pH range 1e4. The highest adsorption capacity of platinum ions onto the thiolated mesoporous silica reached the value of 222 mg/g (1.14 mmol/g). The analytical applicability of the synthesized sorbents for Pt(IV) preconcentration was investigated and validated using the platinum reference materials. High accuracy of platinum determination was achieved which makes the obtained silicas very promising materials for the above mentioned application. © 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. 1. Introduction The use of platinum group metals (PGMs) in many areas, such as technology, medicine, jewellery production and industry is constantly increasing. The high cost of noble metals and their wide application as catalysts (e.g. petroleum reforming, nitric acid pro- duction) make their effective recycling from industrial wastes and concentration control in industrial and environmental samples absolutely necessary. Although chemical, glass and electronic in- dustries emit large amounts of PGMs, their main source are un- doubtedly catalytic converters used in vehicles to control the emission of exhaust gases [1,2]. * Corresponding author. E-mail address: mbarczak@umcs.pl (M. Barczak). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Chemistry and Physics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matchemphys http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2016.06.042 0254-0584/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V. Materials Chemistry and Physics xxx (2016) 1e10 Please cite this article in press as: M. Barczak, et al., Synthesis and application of thiolated mesoporous silicas for sorption, preconcentration and determination of platinum, Materials Chemistry and Physics (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.matchemphys.2016.06.042