Research Article Open Access Volume 5 • Issue 2 • 1000255 J Environ Anal Toxicol ISSN: 2161-0525 JEAT, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Ipeaiyeda and Asagunla, J Environ Anal Toxicol 2014, 5:2 DOI: 10.4172/2161-0525.1000257 *Corresponding author: Ayodele Rotimi Ipeaiyeda, Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria, Tel: +23480339484; E-mail: ayosade2003@ yahoo.com Received November 26, 2014; Accepted December 19, 2014; Published December 22, 2014 Citation: Ipeaiyeda AR, Asagunla OJ (2014) Co-Precipitation Procedure Using Copper (II) Methylbutyldithiocarbamate for Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric Determination of Heavy Metals in Aqueous Standard Solutions and Environmental Samples. J Environ Anal Toxicol 4: 257. doi: 10.4172/2161-0525.1000257 Copyright: © 2014 Ipeaiyeda AR, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Co-Precipitation Procedure Using Copper (II) Methylbutyldithiocarbamate for Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric Determination of Heavy Metals in Aqueous Standard Solutions and Environmental Samples Ayodele Rotimi Ipeaiyeda* and Olayinka Jumoke Asagunla Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria Keywords: Co-precipitation; Methylbutyldithiocarbamate; Wastewater samples; Heavy metals; Spectrophotometry Introduction Te world is grappling with enormous and unprecedented environmental crises. Tese include massive destruction of natural water bodies such as rivers and streams at an alarming rate resulting in tremendous increase in water contamination and accumulation of contaminants in sediments beyond the levels that can be self-purifed by the hydrosphere nor assimilated by aquatic organisms. Nearly every government around the world advocates for river water free from harmful contaminants for their citizens who rely absolutely on such type of water for drinking and domestic purposes. One of such contaminants includes heavy metals [1,2]. Tere has been increased concern regarding deleterious efects of heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, mercury, nickel, copper, and zinc as contaminants in rivers and sediments. Fish caught in rivers with elevated levels of these metals such as mercury resulted to a high incidence of mental retardation, seizure and pyramidal signs [3-6]. Outbreak of health disorder had been linked with the use of heavy metals contaminated rivers for drinking and cooking [7,8]. Also, sediment contamination poses one of the worst environmental problems in marine ecosystem [9,10]. Tese incidences could clearly be as a consequence of the efect of either contaminated run of from agricultural feld, disposal of sewage and industrial wastes or heavy ship trafc [11]. Te serious adverse efects of water pollution by toxic heavy metals on humans and wildlife especially in Bangladesh and West Bengal in India [12] and California in the United State [13] had been reported. Some other prominent studies done on the heavy metal contamination of water environment traceable to industrial, agricultural, urban, mining and smelting activities had been documented in the literatures [14-18]. Heavy metals in water quality assessment are usually determined by atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) with fame or graphite furnace and atomic emission-inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectrometry, afer acid digestion of the samples. Anodic stripping voltametry (ASV) and other electrochemical techniques such as polarography have been used for some the metals. Spectrophotometric methods based on colour development afer addition of specifc reagents have also been used. Conventional atomic absorption spectrometry is suitable for most metals. However, for some metals such as Hg, As and Se which are not of interest in this study, the method has to be modifed. Cold vapour fameless AAS is generally used for Hg while hydride generation has been used for As and Se. Also, some interfering efects in the determination of heavy metals especially chromium by AAS has been reported [19]. Hexavalent chromium can be easily reduced to the trivalent state in polluted waters from anoxic environments. So, the determination of such metal in water sample might require the application of preconcentration technique. Chelate extraction is one of the preconcentration techniques most frequently described in the literatures. Terefore, a simple, rapid, reliable and non-expensive analytical method commonly employed for the determination of these heavy metals in environmental samples is Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (FAAS) [20-23]. Tis method is highly selective but less sensitive compared with other spectra methods such as inductively coupled plasma - mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), inductively coupled plasma – atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and graphite furnace – atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) which are costlier [24]. Tus, coprecipitative preconcentration procedure prior to FAAS determination of heavy Abstract Co-precipitation technique using copper (II) methylbutyldithiocarbamate prior to Nickel (II), manganese (II), cobalt (II), lead (II) and chromium (III) determinations their aqueous standard solutions by spectrophotometric method was developed in this study. The effect of pH, sample volume, amounts of methylbutyldithiocarbamate and copper (II) on the recovery of metal ions were studied. The heavy metals in the precipitate were determined by Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry (FAAS). The detection limits for the determination ranged from 0.003 mg/L to 0.006 mg/L. The co- precipitation procedure was applied for spectrophotometric determination of the heavy metals in water and sediment samples from River Ufara in Igbokoda of Ondo State, part of Nigeria where oil companies were at a time already operating. The mean concentration (ppm) of Ni, Mn, Co, Pb and Cr were 11.7 ± 5.5 and 13.2 ± 1.1; 18.7 ± 4.2 and 63.4 ± 18.2; 1.52 ± 0.11 and 5.60 ± 1.30; 7.8 ± 1.5 and 21.9 ± 3.2; 6.06 ± 0.80 and 19.5 ± 0.9 for water and sediment samples respectively. The mean concentrations of these metals for samples from this area were signifcantly different from corresponding concentrations for control samples which signifed an evidence of metal pollution attributed to oil relating activities. There was also no signifcant difference in the concentrations of metals in samples using spectrometric technique with co-precipitation procedure and without co-precipitation procedure. Journal of Environmental & Analytical Toxicology J o u r n a l o f E n v i r o n m e n t a l & A n a l y t i c a l T o x i c o l o g y ISSN: 2161-0525