Measurement of voltammetric peak area and resolution of overlapping peaks in the simultaneous determination of copper, lead, cadmium, and nickel in environmental matrixes

Peak area was used for the simultaneous determination of copper(II), lead(II), cadmium(II), and nickel(II) in environmental matrixes by differential pulse voltammetry. The voltammetric measurements were performed with a conventional 3-electrode cell and an ammonia-ammonium chloride buffer, pH 9.1, as the supporting electrolyte. The analytical procedure was verified first in aqueous reference solutions and later by analysis of the standard reference materials Estuarine Sediment BCR-CRM 277 and River Sediment BCR-CRM 320. The precision and accuracy of the method, expressed as the relative standard deviation and the relative error, respectively, were <5% in all cases; the detection limit for each element under the experimental conditions used was in the range 1-5 microg/L. In the case of mutual interference between neighboring elements, an analytical procedure is proposed that is based on the standard additions technique, which allows the resolution of the overlapping voltammetric peaks.