On-line preconcentration and determination of lead by fibrous alumina and flow injection–atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A rapid on-line preconcentration technique for the determination of lead in waters by flow injection–flame atomic absorption spectrometry had been devised. Preconcentration was based on the deposition of analyte on a fibrous alumina micro-column and subsequent elution by injection of a small volume of nitric acid (250 µl of 1 mol l–1 acid). Measurement precision at the 5 µg l–1 level was 4.9% and the limit of detection, based on three times the standard deviation of the blank signal for processing distilled water (15 ml), was 0.7 µg l–1. The procedure was successfully applied to a range of water samples.