Pre-concentration of trace elements in short chain alcohols using different commercial cation exchange resins prior to inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometric detection

•Pre-concentration of metal ions in organic solvent.•Solid phase extraction using Dowex 50W-x8.•Determination of trace elements in organic solvents by ICP-OES.•Low limits of detection and quantification.•Metal analysis in commercial alcohol samples. Chelex-100, Dowex 50W-x8 and Dowex MAC-3 exchange resins were investigated for separation and pre-concentration of trace amounts of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb, Ti and Zn in alcohols with respect to retention and desorption characteristics. Dowex 50W-x8 was found to be the best sorbent with percentages recoveries >95%. In addition, Chelex-100 appeared to be suitable for the pre-concentration of Cu, Fe and Zn, whereas Dowex MAC-3 was selective for Cu and Fe. Therefore, Dowex 50W-x8 was used for further investigations. The relative standard deviations