Ultraviolet irradiation and polarographic adsorptive complex wave techniques for the simple and rapid simultaneous determination of trace amounts of zinc,lead and copper in human hair

Polarographic adsorptive complex waves in the presence of catechol violet were studied for the simple and rapid simultaneous determination of traces of zinc, lead and copper in human hair and UV irradiation techniques were compared with conventional acid digestion procedures. UV irradiation of acidified hair with a 500-W mercury are lamp releases bound zinc, lead and copper after 3 h. Compared with the acid digestion procedure, the blank of the UV irradiation method is lower, the amounts of reagents used are smaller and the sample manipulations are simpler. The mechanisms of the polarographic adsorptive complex waves of Zn-, Pb-Cu- catechol violet are discussed.