Evaluation of biological sample mineralisation methods for the determination of fluorine by graphite furnace molecular absorption spectrometry

Various mineralisation methods were evaluated as means of treating different liquid and solid biological samples for the determination of fluorine by the formation of aluminium monofluoride in an electrothermal graphite furnace and molecular absorption spectrometry (AIF-MAS). Simple sample dilution and the use of 0.01 M Al3+ + 0.01 M Sr2+ solution as a matrix modifier are sufficient to determine the fluorine content in most liquid samples, although some require the addition of 0.3 M ammonium nitrate to the matrix modifier solution in order to diminish background absorbance. In solid samples, treatment methods routinely used with fluoride ion-selective electrodes such as microdiffusion, furnace ashing - microdiffusion and oxygen flask combustion, were tested for compatibility with AIF-MAS. The results were compared with those obtained with a fluoride ion-selective electrode. The proposed mineralisation methods were checked for applicability to different plants, foodstuffs and other biological materials. Some of the methods gave an over-all precision of better than 10%, which is often acceptable, and all methods gave recoveries above 80%. Differences between labile + ionic fluoride and total fluorine can be established by sample treatment.