Introduction of the Inductively coupled plasma (ICP–OES) method for the characterization of ”Guber” Srebrenica mineral waters

Abstract

<p>The mineral waters of "Guber" Srebrenica are highly mineralized waters with a significant content of soluble iron. They belong to iron-sulfate waters, which are rich in arsenic and therefore also called iron-arsenic waters with low pH values. Some of the "Guber" waters of Srebrenica were used for therapeutic purposes in the past. Spectrophotometric methods were used for their characterization. Today, instrumental methods are known which are faster and more efficient. This work focusses on using the Inductively Coupled Plasma - Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) for the characterization of Guber Srebrenica mineral waters. Two standards were used to determine the elemental composition of these mineral waters, which differ in concentration and number of elements present. The results obtained by this method for soluble iron from different sources were compared with the spectrophotometric method of iron determination. The obtained results show that the lower iron concentrations in the samples obtained by the ICP method coincide with the results of the spectrophotometric method. However, with higher concentrations of iron (Očna voda), the deviations of the ICP method from the standard spectrophotometric method are greater and this may be the subject of further research. There are also discrepancies in the results between the standards for lead and arsenic, with higher values occurring in the samples where standards with a smaller number of present elements were used, which necessitates the use of standard methods.</p>