Determination of cadmium, iron and tin in home-made Brazilian sugar cane spirit, cachaça by graphite furnace absorption spectrometry using matrix matching calibration

Abstract

Summary: This work reports methods to determine cadmium, iron and tin in home-made Brazilian sugar cane spirit, cachaca using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF AAS) employing matrix matching calibration and zirconium thermally deposited (520 g) as permanent modifier for iron and tin and none modifier use for cadmium. For Cd, Fe and Sn, the obtained charactetisc characteristic masses (1% absorption) were 0.2; 6.5 and 1.6 pg, with recommended characteristic masses of 0.5, 10 and 5 pg, respectively (Perkin Elmer, Newart, USA). The limits of detection (3, n=10) were 0.04 pg, 20 and 2.5 pg for Cd, Fe and Sn, respectively. Matrix matching calibration curves (aqueous solutions 40% v/v in ethanol) presented r 2 (linear regression coefficient) greater than 0.999 for all analytes. Two samples of cachaca spiked with 0.75, 1.25 and 1.75 µg L -1 showed recoveries from 90.2 to 112.5% for Cd. For iron, the spikes were 30, 60 and 90 µg L -1 and recoveries varied between 96.7 to 111.2%, while for tin samples spiked with 15, 25 and 35 µg L -1 , recoveries