Vapor generation – atomic spectrometric techniques. Expanding frontiers through specific-species preconcentration. A review

We review recent progress in preconcentration strategies associated to vapor generation techniques coupled to atomic spectrometric (VGT-AS) for specific chemical species detection. This discussion focuses on the central role of different preconcentration approaches, both before and after VG process. The former was based on the classical solid phase and liquid–liquid extraction procedures which, aided by automation and miniaturization strategies, have strengthened the role of VGT-AS in several research fields including environmental, clinical, and others. We then examine some of the new vapor trapping strategies (atom-trapping, hydride trapping, cryotrapping) that entail improvements in selectivity through interference elimination, but also they allow reaching ultra-low detection limits for a large number of chemical species generated in conventional VG systems, including complete separation of several species of the same element. This review covers more than 100 bibliographic references from 2009 up to date, found in SCOPUS database and in individual searches in specific journals. We finally conclude by giving some outlook on future directions of this field.     

The selection of a chemical modifier for vanadium determination in various types of natural waters by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Various modifiers (ascorbic acid, NH₄NO₃, EDTA, NH₄SCN and a mixture of Pd/Mg(NO₃)₂) are compared for the accurate determination of vanadium in natural waters by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. The interferences of compounds commonly present in natural waters, such as NaCl, CaCl₂, MgCl₂ and FeCl₃ are studied. Matrix interferences were effectively eliminated by ascorbic acid or ammonium nitrate. For comparison, the standard addition method was applied without a modifier which provided satisfactory results. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analysis of certified reference materials of waters (‘Trace Metals in Drinking Water’ and SRM 1643e ‘Trace Elements in Water’) as well as by recoveries of vanadium spiked to tap water, mineral water, synthetic riverine and synthetic sea waters. The limits of detection and characteristic masses for ascorbic acid and ammonium nitrate as the modifiers were 1.71 and 1.56?µg?L^?1 and 70 and 67?pg, respectively. Recovery was in the range of 98–105% and RSD was less than 5%.     

Controlling Contamination for Determination of Ultra-Trace Levels of Cr and Ni in Biological Materials in a Conventional Laboratory

The determination of ultra-trace levels of chromium and nickel in biological samples had previously been very difficult due to serious contamination problems in conventional laboratories. Contamination control in a conventional laboratory was studied and contamination due to various sources was minimized systematically. In addition to chromium and nickel, zinc was also determined as an indicator element prone to contamination. Measurements were carried out using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). Contamination from the sample handling steps, digestion vessels, atmospheric fallout, and the effect of the liquid contact area were studied. In the sample handling steps, even simple procedures, such as transferring the sample solution from the volumetric flask by pouring, led to significant contamination due to the large area of liquid contact. This contamination source was eliminated by transferring the sample solution using an automatic pipette. The most suitable method for decontamination of the digestion vessels was steaming with boiling nitric acid as opposed to leaching with nitric acid at room temperature. Quartz was found to be a more suitable digestion vessel material than Teflon-PFA when Cr and Ni were determined. For Zn determination, Teflon-PFA was more suitable. Contamination from atmospheric fallout was highest in the fume hood and was reduced by simply closing the labware into Minigrip® bags before use. The surface area of the labware in contact with the handled liquid volume should be kept at a minimum because even a simple procedure, such as preparing standard solutions in volumetric flasks, can lead to significant contamination if the vessel surface area is too large. Finally, low enough contamination was achieved so that the total procedure blanks were below the instrumental detection limits for Cr and Ni.     

The determination of trace metals in lubricating oils by atomic spectrometry

The determination of trace metals in lubricating oils using atomic spectrometric methods is reviewed. The importance of such analyses for technical diagnostics as well as the specific sample characteristics related to the analyte form (metallo-organic and metal particles) is discussed. Problems related to sample pre-treatment for appropriate sample introduction and calibration are addressed as well as the strategies to overcome them. Recent trends aimed at simplifying sample manipulation are presented. The applications and scope of AAS, ICP OES and ICP MS techniques for the determination of trace metals in lubricating oil is individually discussed, as well as some present instrumental trends.     

Formic acid solubilization of marine biological tissues for multi-element determination by ETAAS and ICP–AES

A simple, fast method is described for the determination of Ag, As, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Ni, and Se in marine biological tissues by electrothermal atomic-absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) and Na, Ca, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Mn by inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry (ICP–AES). Solubilization of the biological tissue was achieved by using formic acid with vortex mixing followed by heating to 50°C in an ultrasonic bath. Once solubilized, the tissues were diluted to an appropriate volume with water for analysis. Aliquots were sampled into a graphite furnace and ICP–AES using a conventional autosampler. The method was validated by use of biological certified reference materials from NRC, DORM-2, DOLT-2, DOLT-3, LUTS-1, TORT-2, and NIST SRMs 1566b and 2976. Simplicity and reduced sample-preparation time prove to be the major advantages to the technique.     

Speciation of iron in breast milk and infant formulas whey by size exclusion chromatography-high performance liquid chromatography and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

Speciation of iron in milk was carried out by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS). Milk whey was obtained and low molecular weight protein separation was performed by size exclusion chromatography (SEC) with a TSK Gel SW glass guard (Waters) pre-column and a TSK-Gel G2000 glass (Toso Haas) column. After studying water as a possible mobile phase, this mobile phase was carefully selected in order to avoid alterations of the sample and to make subsequent iron determination in the protein fractions easier by ETAAS. The proposed method is sensitive (limit of detection [LOD] and LOQ 1.4 and 4.7 μg l⁻¹, respectively) and precise (relative standard deviation [RSD]<10%). Iron is principally found in the proteins of 3 and 76 kDa in breast milk, and it is irregularly distributed in infant formulas.     

Determination of cadmium, copper and lead in soils, sediments and sea water samples by ETAAS using a Sc + Pd + NH(4)NO(3) chemical modifier

Cadmium, copper and lead in soils, sediments and spiked sea water samples have been determined by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) with Zeeman effect background corrector using NH₄NO₃, Sc, Pd, Sc + NH₄NO₃, Pd + NH₄NO₃, Sc + Pd and Sc + Pd + NH₄NO₃ as chemical modifiers. A comprehensive comparison was made among the modifiers and without modifier in terms of pyrolysis and atomization temperatures, atomization and background absorption profiles, characteristic masses, detection limits and accuracy of the determinations. Sc + Pd + NH₄NO₃ modifier mixture was found to be preferable for the determination of analytes in soil and sediment certified and standard reference materials, and sea water samples because it increased the pyrolysis temperature up to 900 °C for Cd, 1350 °C for Cu and 1300 °C for Pb. Optimum masses of mixed modifier components found are 20 μg Sc + 4 μg Pd + 8 μg NH₄NO₃. Characteristic masses of Cd, Cu and Pb obtained are 0.6, 5.3 and 15.8 pg, respectively. The detection limits of Cd, Cu and Pb were found to be 0.08, 0.57 and 0.83 μg l⁻¹, respectively. Depending on the solid sample type, the percent recoveries were increased up to 103% for Cd, Cu and Pb by using the proposed modifier mixture. The accuracy of the determination of analytes in the sea water samples was also increased.     

Comparative Studies on Chemical Modification by Diethyldithiocarbamate for ETV-ICP-OES and ETAAS Determination of Chromium and Nickel

The chemical modification of diethyldithiocarbamate (DDTC) in electrothermal vaporization inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ETV-ICP-OES) and in electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) was comparatively investigated. The experimental results indicated that the formation of Cr- and Ni-DDTC chelates enhanced significantly the emission signals of Cr and Ni in ETV-ICP-OES, but decreased the absorption signal of Cr and Ni in ETAAS. The different role of DDTC in ETV-ICP-OES and ETAAS was attributed to the different functions of the graphite furnace in the two techniques. The graphite furnace was used as both a vaporizer and an atom-vessel for analytes in ETAAS, but only used as a vaporizer for the sample in ETV-ICP-OES. Thermal gravimetric analysis of Cr- and Ni-DDTC chelates and UV-Vis analysis of the sample vapor collected in CHCl₃ after vaporization of their chelates from the graphite furnace indicated that the analytes were vaporized and transported into ICP as their chelates. In addition, the vaporization mechanism of Cr and Ni was also briefly discussed.     

Determination of strontium and its relation to other alkaline earth elements in human brain samples

Strontium content of five brain regions of five control and five Alzheimer's diseased (AD) patients and eight brain regions of three Hungarian control patients was determined. Microwave-assisted and high-pressure Parr-bomb digestions were used for sample dissolution. Strontium content of the digested samples was measured by ETAAS. The optimized parameters for digested human brain samples are: T_{pyrolysis, max}: 1500 °C, T_atomization: 2500 °C, 0.4% La(NO₃)₃ as a chemical modifier. The detection limit is 0.057 ng/ml and the characteristic mass is 1.0 pg. Calcium and magnesium content of the same digested samples were measured by ICP-OES. Accuracy of the applied methods was tested by analyzing NBS SRM1577 Bovine liver reference material, digested and measured with the samples together. Recovery measurements were done to eliminate the disturbing effect of the matrix. Strontium concentrations show great individual differences (20–450 ng/g, dry weight) independent of being either control or AD values, in contrast to the Mg (c_{control,Hungarian}: 590–675 μg/g, c_{control,German}: 620–675 μg/g, c_AD,German: 640–695 μg/g) and Ca (c_{control,Hungarian}: 270–390 μg/g, c_{control,German}: 310–400 μg/g, c_AD,German: 435–515 μg/g) concentrations.     

Speciation analysis of chromium in natural water samples by electrothermal atomic absorbance spectrometry after separation/preconcentration with nanometer-sized zirconium oxide immobilized on silica gel

Silica gel was prepared by the sol–gel method, modified with nanometer-sized zirconium oxide, and this material was characterized by X-ray diffraction. A micro-column packed with silica gel modified with nanometer zirconium oxide as sorbent has been developed for the quantitative separation and preconcentration of trace amounts of chromium(III) prior to their determination by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. Total chromium was determined after the reduction of chromium(VI) to chromium(III) by 10% (m/v) of aqueous ascorbic acid as reducing reagent. The adsorption capacity for chromium(III) was found to be 2.36 mg g⁻¹. The detection limit for chromium(III) was 15 ng L⁻¹ with an enrichment factor of 100. The relative standard deviation was 3.2% (n = 7, c = 2.0 ng mL⁻¹).