As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb pressurized liquid extraction with acetic acid from marine sediment and soil samples

Abstract

Rapid leaching procedures by Pressurized Liquid Extraction (PLE) have been developed for As, Cd, Cr, Ni and Pb leaching from environmental matrices (marine sediment and soil samples). The Pressurized Liquid Extraction is completed after 16 min. The released elements by acetic acid Pressurized Liquid Extraction have been evaluated by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The optimum multi-element leaching conditions when using 5.0 ml stainless steel extraction cells, were: acetic acid concentration 8.0 M, extraction temperature 100 °C, pressure 1500 psi, static time 5 min, flush solvent 60%, two extraction steps and 0.50 g of diatomaceous earth as dispersing agent (diatomaceous earth mass/sample mass ratio of 2). Results have showed that high acetic acid concentrations and high extraction temperatures increase the metal leaching efficiency. Limits of detection (between 0.12 and 0.5 μg g − 1 ) and repeatability of the over-all procedure (around 6.0%) were assessed. Finally, accuracy was studied by analyzing PACS-2 (marine sediment), GBW-07409 (soil), IRANT-12-1-07 (cambisol soil) and IRANT-12-1-08 (luvisol soil) certified reference materials (CRMs). These certified reference materials offer certified concentrations ranges between 2.9 and 26.2 μg g − 1 for As, from 0.068 to 2.85 μg g − 1 for Cd, between 26.4 and 90.7 μg g − 1 for Cr, from 9.3 to 40.0 μg g − 1 for Ni and between 16.3 and 183.0 μg g − 1 for Pb. Recoveries after analysis were between 95.7 and 105.1% for As, 96.2% for Cd, 95.2 and 100.6% for Cr, 95.7 and 103% for Ni and 94.2 and 105.5% for Pb.