Pyrene interaction with selected heavy metal ions in aqueous sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)

Abstract Pyrene interaction with Fe3+, Cu2+, Cr3+, Ni2+, Pb2+ was studied in 0.02 mol L-1 SDS. All the studied heavy metal ions quenched the fluorescence intensity of pyrene though variations were found in the level of quenching. Stern-Volmer equation fitted the pyrene quenching by heavy metal ions. Stern-Volmer constants ( K S V ) were obtained with the fitting of the quenching data with the Stern-Volmer equation. K S V shows the level of quenching and the sensitivity of the method. Greater the K S V larger will be the detection and quantification limit and vice versa. K S V , detection limit (DL) and quantification limit (QL) varied from 9.26 × 103 mol L-1 to 4.13 × 103 mol L-1, 1.61 × 10-6 mol L-1 to 5.85 × 10-6 mol L-1 and 5.38 × 10-6 mol L-1 to 19.49 × 10-6 mol L-1 respectively. The overall sensitivity, DL and QL were observed in the order Fe3+ > Cu2+ > Cr3+ > Ni2+ > Pb2+. Pyrene fluorescence quenching by the studied heavy metal ions is a fruitful method for their determination in environmental samples.