Determination of methylcyclopentadienyl-manganese tricarbonyl by solid phase microextraction-direct thermal desorption-quartz furnace atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A new procedure that uses a pre-concentration system based on solid phase microextraction (SPME) and detection by quartz furnace-atomic absorption spectrometry after thermal desorption from the microextraction fiber has been proposed for the determination of methylcyclopentadienylmanganese tricarbonyl (MMT) in gasoline and water. Working MMT solutions were prepared in 40 ml amber vials, and sampling was performed by exposing the SPME fiber to the headspace over vigorously stirred samples for 15 min. The analytical performance characteristics of the proposed procedure were as follows: the detection limit for MMT was 0.71 ng ml −1 (as Mn), with a relative standard deviation of 4% for MMT determination of 25 ng ml −1 (as Mn, n=6) while the calibration curve was linear up to 100 ng ml −1 range. The proposed procedure was finally applied to the determination of MMT in gasoline and water samples and non significant differences (Student's t-test) were found between obtained values (using direct calibration and standard additions) and those expected values.