Simple and Rapid Determination of Arsenic, Lead, Cadmium and Tin in Soft Drinks by Electrothermal Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

To detect trace amounts of arsenic, lead, cadmium and tin in soft drinks, a simple and rapid determination without sample pretreatment was developed. A sample of a soft drink was diluted with distilled water and examined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with addition of nickel nitrate as a matrix modifier. Detection limits of arsenic, lead, cadmium and tin in the samples were 0.025ppm (as As2O3), 0.025ppm, 0.005ppm and 0.3ppm, respectively.The developed method was applied to the determination of arsenic, lead, cadmium and tin in 13 kinds of soft drinks (total 150 samples). The amounts of arsenic and lead in the soft drinks were less than 0.025ppm in all samples; cadmium and tin were detected in only 2 (0.006-0.019ppm) and 5 (6.9-86ppm) of 150 samples, respectively. The proposed method is simple and rapid for determination of arsenic, lead, cadmium and tin in soft drinks.