Freon (CHF<Subscript>3</Subscript>)-assisted atomization for the determination of titanium using ultrasonic slurry sampling–graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (USS–GFAAS): a simple and advantageous method for solid samples

A simple and advantageous method for the determination of titanium using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with slurry sampling has been developed. Titanium is one of the refractory elements that form thermally stable carbides in the graphite tube, which leads to severe memory effects. Trifluoromethane (Freon-23) was applied in the purge gas during the atomization step or alternatively just prior to the atomization to successfully eliminate the problems of carbide formation and increase the lifetime of the furnace tube which could be used for more than 600 heating cycles. A flow rate of 40 mL min^–1 (5% of Freon in argon) was used to obtain symmetrical peaks with no tailing. However, when the gas flow rate was too high (250 mL min^–1) the peak-tailing and memory effects reappeared. Ti was determined in various materials covering a wide range of concentrations, from 2.8 g g^–1 to 12% (m/m) Ti. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analyzing certified reference materials (CRMs) or by comparing the results with those obtained using inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry (ICP–AES) after decomposition of the samples. The materials analyzed were soil, plant, human hair, coal, urban particulate matters, toothpaste, and powdered paint.     

Ammonium tetraphenylborate-naphthalene adsorbent for the preconcentration and trace determination of uranium in standard alloys and synthetic samples using 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol by fourth-derivative spectrophotometry

A solid ion-pair material produced from ammonium tetraphenylborate (ATPB) and naphthalene has been used for the preconcentration of uranium from the large volume of its aqueous complex samples. Uranium reacts with 2-(5-bromo-2-pyridylazo)-5-diethylaminophenol (5-Br-PADAP) to form a water insoluble, coloured complex. This complex is quantitatively retained on the ATPB-naphthalene adsorbent filled in a column in the pH range 7.0–9.5 and at a flow rate of 2 ml/min. The solid mass from the column is dissolved with 5 ml of dimethylformamide (DMF) and uranium is determined by fourth-derivative spectrophotometry. The calibration curve is linear over the concentration range of 0.13–15.0 g of uranium in 5 ml of the final DMF solution. Seven replicate determinations of 6 g of uranium gave a mean peak height (peak-to-peak signal between 592 nm and 582 nm) of 1.02 with a relative standard deviation of 0.95%. The sensitivity is 0.8419 (d⁴A/d⁴)/(g ml^–1) found from the slope of the calibration curve. The interference of a large number of anions and cations on the estimation of uranium has been studied and the method applied for the determination of uranium in coal fly ash, Zr-base alloy and some synthetic samples corresponding to standard alloys.     

Column preconcentration of gold by adsorbing AuCl<Stack><Subscript>4</Subscript><Superscript>−</Superscript></Stack> onto methyltrioctyl ammonium chloride–naphthalene and subsequent atomic absorption spectrometric determination

A sensitive, selective and simple preconcentration method for ultra-trace gold determination has been developed that uses naphthalene–methyltrioctyl ammonium chloride (Aliquat 336s) as an adsorbent. Gold, in the form of AuCl₄^–, was retained by the adsorbent in the column at a flow rate of 1 ml min^–1. After filtration, the solid mass consisting of the gold complex and naphthalene was dissolved out of the column with 5 ml of N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF), and the metal was then determined by atomic absorption spectrometry. In the initial solution, the calibration graph of absorbance versus gold concentration was found to be linear in the range 0.5–150 ng ml^–1 Au(III) with r=0.997 (n =9), and the 3 s detection limit was 0.428 ng ml^–1. The relative standard deviation for eight replicate measurements of 20 g of gold was 2.14%. Preconcentration factors of 390 and 650 were achieved using 5 ml and 3 ml of DMF, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied to the determination of gold in wastewater, processed pool water, slurry pool water, and raw well-water from the Moteh gold mine, and synthetic samples.     

Solid-phase extraction system for Pb (II) ions enrichment based on multiwall carbon nanotubes coupled on-line to flame atomic absorption spectrometry

The present paper proposes the application of multiwall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) as a solid sorbent for lead preconcentration using a flow system coupled to flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The method comprises the preconcentration of Pb (II) ions at a buffered solution (pH 4.7) onto 30 mg of MWCNTs previously oxidized with concentrated HNO₃. The elution step is carried out with 1.0 mol L⁻¹ HNO₃. The effect of the experimental parameters, including sample pH, sampling flow rate, buffer and eluent concentrations were investigated by means of a 2⁴ full factorial design, while for the final optimization a Doehlert design was employed. Under the best experimental conditions the preconcentration system provided detection and quantification limits of 2.6 and 8.6 μg L⁻¹, respectively. A wide linear range varying from 8.6 up to 775 μg L⁻¹ (r > 0.999) and the respective precision (relative standard deviation) of 7.7 and 1.4% for the 15 and 200 μg L⁻¹ levels were obtained. The characteristics obtained for the performance of the flow preconcentration system were a preconcentration factor of 44.2, preconcentration efficiency of 11 min⁻¹, consumptive index of 0.45 mL and sampling frequency estimated as 14 h⁻¹. Preconcentration studies of Pb (II) ions in the presence of the majority foreign ions tested did not show interference, attesting the good performance of MWCNTs. The accuracy of the method was assessed from analysis of water samples (tap, mineral, physiological serum and synthetic seawater) and common medicinal herbs submitted to the acid decomposition (garlic and Ginkgo Biloba). The satisfactory recovery values obtained without using analyte addition method confirms the feasibility of this method for Pb (II) ions determination in different type of samples.     

An open optimization problem in statistical quality control

We ask the experts in global optimization if there is an efficient solution to an optimization problem in acceptance sampling: Here, one often has incomplete prior information about the quality of incoming lots. Given a cost model, a decision rule for the inspection of a lot may then be designed that minimizes the maximum loss compatible with the available information. The resulting minimax problem is sometimes hard to solve, as the loss functions may have several local maxima which vary in an unpredictable way with the parameters of the decision rule.     

Headspace-gas chromatography: The influence of sample volume on analytical results

Summary The role of the volume of the sample and the sample vial in equilibrium headspace-gas chromatography is discussed. A new term, thesample phase fraction (_S) is introduced. It is shown that if the value of _S is kept constant, the vial's volume has no influence on the sensitivity of the headspace analysis (which is proportional to the concentration of the analyte in the headspace). In a given headspace sampling system, concentration of the compound of interest in the headspace (c _G ^* ) at equilibrium is related to the value of _S: a higher _S will increase c _G ^* . However, the influence is important only in the case of low distribution coefficients: in the case of higher distribution coefficients this influence is negligible. This conclusion is also true for small changes in the sample volume in duplicate analyses: exact reproducibility of the sample volume is important only in the case of low distribution coefficient values.     

Sol-gel approach to in situ creation of high pH-resistant surface-bonded organic-inorganic hybrid zirconia coating for capillary microextraction (in-tube SPME)

A novel zirconia-based hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel coating was developed for capillary microextraction (CME) (in-tube SPME). High degree of chemical inertness inherent in zirconia makes it very difficult to covalently bind a suitable organic ligand to its surface. In the present work, this problem was addressed from a sol-gel chemistry point of view. Principles of sol-gel chemistry were employed to chemically bind a hydroxy-terminated silicone polymer (polydimethyldiphenylsiloxane, PDMDPS) to a sol-gel zirconia network in the course of its evolution from a highly reactive alkoxide precursor undergoing controlled hydrolytic polycondensation reactions. A fused silica capillary was filled with a properly designed sol solution to allow for the sol-gel reactions to take place within the capillary for a predetermined period of time (typically 15-30 min). In the course of this process, a layer of the evolving hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel polymer got chemically anchored to the silanol groups on the capillary inner walls via condensation reaction. At the end of this in-capillary residence time, the unbonded part of the sol solution was expelled from the capillary under helium pressure, leaving behind a chemically bonded sol-gel zirconia-PDMDPS coating on the inner walls. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, ketones, and aldehydes were efficiently extracted and preconcentrated from dilute aqueous samples using sol-gel zirconia-PDMDPS coated capillaries followed by thermal desorption and GC analysis of the extracted solutes. The newly developed sol-gel hybrid zirconia coatings demonstrated excellent pH stability, and retained the extraction characteristics intact even after continuous rinsing with a 0.1 M NaOH solution for 24 h. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the use of a sol-gel zirconia-based hybrid organic-inorganic coating as an extraction medium in solid phase microextraction (SPME).     

Determination of trace amounts of cadmium and copper by atomic absorption spectrometry after simultaneous extraction and preconcentration using a new water-soluble polyacrylic acid/alumina sorbent

An analytical method using alumina modified with water-soluble polyacrylic acid polymer for the simultaneous separation and preconcentration of trace Cu and Cd in a column system, and their determination by flame atomic absorption spectrometry was developed. The conditions for coating Al₂O₃ with polyacrylic acid were optimized, then the column was packed with 50 mg of this sorbent. Cd and Cu solution was passed through a glass column at pH 4.5, and elution was carried out with 5 mL of 0.05 M HCl at a flow rate of 1 mL min⁻¹. A sorption capacity of 10 mg Cu and 12 mg Cd was obtained for 1 g sorbent. The detection limit was calculated as 4.5 μg L⁻¹ for Cu and 1.54 μg L⁻¹ for Cd in the final solution. Enrichment factors of 300 for Cd and 400 for Cu were obtained.     

Slurry sampling for determination of lead in marine plankton by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A slurry sampling method has been developed for the determination of Pb in marine plankton by ETAAS using a freshwater plankton certified reference material (CRM 414). Slurries were prepared in 1–3% m/v range with 1% v/v HNO₃ by ultrasonic agitation for 5 min. The effects of several chemical modifiers, including Ir(NO₃)₂, Mg(NO₃)₂, Pd(NO₃)₂, Pd(NO₃)₂ + Mg(NO₃)₂, and Mg(NO₃)₂ + NH₄H₂PO₄, were investigated for the stabilization of Pb during thermal pretreatment. Lead in slurries was effectively stabilized up to 1000 °C with Ir, Pd and Pd + Mg modifiers among which Pd + Mg provided the best results with complete atomization at 1850 °C. Firings in the presence of Ir were, problematic due to ash formation inside the atomizer. Water, dilute HNO₃ and HF were examined as suspension medium. Dilute HNO₃ (1–2% v/v) proved to be advantageous over water as it afforded extraction of Pb from plankton almost quantitatively in 5 min agitation. Hydrofluoric acid was the least suitable medium. Increasing HF concentration up to 5% v/v resulted in inaccuracy and substantial background absorption. Fast-heating furnace method provided comparable accuracy and precision to that of conventional-heating in slurries of CRM 414. Detection limits and characteristic masses were, respectively, 0.49 μg L^− 1 and 32 pg for the conventional method and 0.62 μg L^− 1 and 37 pg for the fast-heating method. However, fast-heating approach suffered from distorted peaks at high temperatures and incomplete pyrolysis of matrix at lower temperatures. Analysis of marine plankton samples for Pb was performed by using the conventional furnace program. The results showed a high correlation with those obtained by solution ICP-MS. Differences were statistically insignificant within 95% confidence interval.     

Designing a contaminated soil sampling strategy for human health risk assessment

Human health risk assessment is a site-based approach used to identify the potential health hazards which are induced by an old site contamination. For a proper evaluation of the daily doses of contaminants to which people will be exposed given the future occupation of the site, both a characterization and a quantification of soil pollution are needed. Such information can be provided by soil sampling. Thus the choice of the location, the number, depth and type of soil samples is very important and ought to follow a well-defined strategy. A review of contaminated site sampling practices in Europe and North America could not identify any completely formalized sampling strategy for human health risk assessment. On the contrary there are several approaches which can be roughly classified into two categories: a systematic sampling scheme over the whole site, on the one hand, and a sampling design driven by an initial knowledge of the contamination sources and fitted to the suspected pollution pattern, on the other. The first approach provides a complete coverage of the site but it may be rather expensive and entail useless sampling. The performance of the second depends on the quality of prior information. Actually both methods can be combined as explained hereafter. In view of the specificity of each site, the requirements of health risk assessment and the time and cost constraints, it seems difficult to work out a typical soil sampling strategy suitable for all sites. However, some recommendations can be made according to the site dimensions, the nature, degree and heterogeneity of contamination, and the (future) use of the site. The scientist should thus rely on a thorough examination of all available information (site history, geology and hydrogeology, soil properties, contaminants behaviour , etc.) to delimit contaminated areas as homogeneous as possible and then distribute the sampling points (e.g.using a sampling grid). They should also take the potential exposure paths into account in order to define the areas and soil strata to be sampled as a priority. Statistical and geostatistical tools can be helpful for formulating a sampling strategy as well as for interpreting the collected data. Received: 7 December 2001 Accepted: 24 February 2002