Determination of manganese in natural waters by atomic absorption spectrometry with a carbon tube atomizer

Abstract

The atomic absorption spectrometry of manganese was studied with carbon tube atomizers. Various inner diameters of the carbon tubes were studied: small bores gave higher sensitivity, but large bores gave higher reproducibility. A fairly linear calibration curve was obtained in the range of 1–6 ·10 -10 g of manganese with injection volumes of 5 μl. The detection limit was 1.5 ·10 -11 g and the relative standard deviation 3.5%. In 40-fold amounts, few salts interfered, but there were considerable interferences from 400 and 4000-fold amounts. Manganese in natural waters was determined by extracting it into diisobutyl ketone as the diethyldithiocarbamate; the amounts found lay in the range 0.5–33 p.p.b.