Determination of lead in waters and sediments from the wetland Tablas de Daimiel National Park (Spain)

Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) has been used for lead control in waters and sediments of the wetland Tablas de Daimiel National Park. The lead determination in the wetland water is hindered by an enhanced salt content, so matrix interference was evaluated. The use of stabilized temperature platform atomization technique, Zeeman background correction and palladium nitrate as matrix modifier were found advisable. For the sediments a closed-vessel microwave dissolution method has been proposed using a mixture of HCl-HNO₃-HF and a heating time of 90 s. With subsequent ETAAS using platform atomization and Zeeman background correction, no chemical modification was necessary. Using these conditions, the interferences were completely removed for both waters and sediments and the calibration curve in ultrapure water (1% nitric acid) was linear up to 30 μg/L. The detection limits for waters and sediments were 0.95 μg/L and 0.78 μg/g, respectively. The accuracy of the proposed method for sediments was validated by analyzing certified reference materials (obtained values were within the certified ones) and spiked wetland sediments (mean recovery of 99.0%). Received: 11 October 1998 / Revised: 3 December 1998 / Accepted: 11 March 1999