Determination of copper in milk powder by electrothermal atomic absorption and atomic emission spectrometry

Summary Electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETA-AAS) and atomic emission spectrometry (ETA-AES) have been applied to the determination of copper in powdered milk. A homogeneous dispersion procedure for the preparation of the milk powder is described which was found to be simple, rapid and less susceptible to contamination than dry ashing or wet digestion methods. Both ETA-AAS and ETA-AES techniques were found to provide satisfactory results using conventional tube wall atomisation only when the method of standard additions was employed. The application of graphite probe atomisation in ETA-AES and ETA-AAS allowed the development of direct methods for the determination of copper in milk powder using aqueous standard calibration curves. The accuracy of the probe ETA-AAS method was confirmed using new reference materials prepared by the EEC Community Bureau of Reference. Acceptable agreement was obtained for the other procedures using a commercial milk powder sample with a copper content of 6.0g g^–1.