Vol.:(0123456789) Research on Chemical Intermediates (2020) 46:2055–2068 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11164-019-04069-8 1 3 Application of magnetic graphene-based bucky gel as an efcient green sorbent for determination of mercury in fsh and water samples Fateme Faryadras 1  · Seyedeh Mahboobeh Yousef 1  · Parastoo Jamshidi 1  · Farzaneh Shemirani 1 Received: 6 August 2019 / Accepted: 30 December 2019 / Published online: 28 February 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020 Abstract In this article, a highly ecient method based on coupling magnetic solid-phase extraction and dispersive microsolid-phase extraction was proposed to preconcen- trate Hg 2+ . In this technique, extraction of Hg 2+ was carried out by magnetic gra- phene-based bucky gel (MGBG). MGBG was prepared by dispersing magnetic gra- phene (MG) in a [Hmim][BF 4 ]. Utilization of [Hmim][BF 4 ] led to better dispersion of MG in aqueous solution and decreased the extraction time. In addition, MG was separable by an external magnet so filtration steps were omitted. The sorbent was characterized by X-ray diraction, scanning electron microscopy, alternating gradi- ent force magnetometer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The precon- centration conditions were optimized as pH value of 1 ± 0.2, dithizone concentration of 8 × 10 6  mol L 1 , [Hmim][BF 4 ] volume of 50 μL, MG amount of 5 mg, n-hexane volume of 200 μL and elution time of 5 min. The quantification of Hg 2+ was carried out by UV–visible spectroscopy. Under the optimized conditions, limit of detection (2.11 μg L 1 ), relative standard deviation (2.59%), preconcentration factor (150) and linearity of dynamic range (7–100 μg L 1 ) were calculated which showed high reli- ability of sorbent to preconcentrate Hg 2+ . The eect of interference ions was investi- gated. The method was successfully applied to preconcentrate Hg 2+ in fish and water samples. To better understand the adsorption of Hg 2+ onto MGBG, thermodynamic of adsorption is reported. Keywords Magnetic bucky gel · Mercury · Spectrophotometry · Ionic liquid · Fish * Farzaneh Shemirani Shemiran@khayam.ut.ac.ir; fshemirani@ut.ac.ir 1 School of Chemistry, College of Science, University of Tehran, P.O. Box 14155-6455 Tehran, Iran