Determination of copper, nickel, manganese and cadmium ions in aqueous samples by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after simultaneous coprecipitation with Co(OH)2

Abstract

A separation-preconcentration procedure was developed for the determination of trace amounts of copper, nickel, manganese and cadmium ions in water samples by flame atomic absorption spectrometry after coprecipitation by Co(OH)2 as a carrier without a chelating agent. The influence of the various analytical parameters such as pH, amount of carrier reagent, standing time, centrifugation rate and time, sample volume and matrix effects on the recovery of the analyte ions was studied. Under the specified experimental conditions the calibration curves for Ni(II) and Cu(II) were linear from 0.5 to 200ngmL−1 and for Mn(II) and Cd(II) from 0.5 to 250 and 0.3 to 80ngmL−1, respectively. The relative standard deviations for seven replicate determinations of a mixture of 40.0ngmL−1 of Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II) and 20ngmL−1 of Cd(II) in the original solution were 1.9%, 1.7%, 1.8% and 2.1%, respectively. The detection limits based on 3Sb/m for Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II) and Cd(II) in the original solution were 0.2, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.07ngmL−1, respectively. The limits of quantification based on 10Sb/m for Cu(II), Ni(II), Mn(II) and Cd(II) in the original solution were 6.7, 6.7, 10.0 and 2.3ngmL−1, respectively. The proposed method has been applied to the determination of trace amounts of the analyte ions in two certified reference materials (the National Institute for Environment Studies (NIES) No. 1 Pepperbush and NIES No. 7 Tea Leaves) and water samples and satisfactory results were obtained.