Determination of copper and cadmium in sea water by preconcentration and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A preconcentration procedure was developed for the determination of trace copper and cadmium in sea water. The chelating agent ammonium tetramethylenedithiocarbamate [ammonium pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate (APDC)] and a miniature column packed with 5 mg of silica gel C 18 were used for preconcentration. Only 100–1000 μl of sample was required. The whole volume of the methanol eluate (40 μl) was injected directly into the graphite furnace of the atomic absorption spectrometer. The calibration graph method was used. This technique is simple and rapid and provides results of high accuracy and precision. The accuracy of the results was demonstrated by the analysis of various reference standard sea-water samples.