Determination of arsenic in sea water by cathodic stripping voltammetry in the presence of pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate

Abstract

A procedure is presented for the determination of arsenite and total arsenic in sea water using differential pulse cathodic stripping voltammetry at a hanging mercury drop electrode in the presence of pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDC). The deposition potential was −0.3 V, whereas the scan was initiated from 0 V. Optimised conditions include a PDC concentration of 0.5 μM and a pH ≈ 0.8. The detection limit of the method is 3 nM As. The method was tested by analysis of CASS-2 certified sea water and applied to determination of arsenic in Atlantic ocean water.