Determination of copper,nickel, and cadmium in sea water by apdc chelate coprecipitation and flameless atomic absorption spectrometry

Copper, nickel, and cadmium can be determined in 100 ml of sea water by coprecipitation with cobalt pyrrolidinedithiocarbamate and graphite atomizer atomic absorption spectrometry. Concentration ranges likely to be encountered and estimated (1 σ ) analytical precisions are 1–6 nmol kg^-1 (±0.1) for copper, 3–12 nmol kg^-1 (±0.3) for nickel and 0.0–1.1 nmol kg^-1 (±0.1) for cadmium. The technique may be applied to fresh-water samples with slight modification.