Determination of platinum group metals and lead in vegetable environmental bio-monitors by voltammetric and spectroscopic techniques: critical comparison

The present work regards the voltammetric sequential determination of Pt(II), Pd(II), Rh(III), by square wave adsorption stripping voltammetry (SWAdSV) and Pb(II) by square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) in vegetable environmental matrices. The analytical procedure was verified by the analysis of the standard reference materials: Olive Leaves BCR-CRM 062, Tomato Leaves NIST-SRM 1573a. Precision and accuracy, expressed as relative standard deviation and relative error, respectively, were generally lower than 6 % in all cases, while the limits of detection for each element were lower than 0.096 µg/g. Once set up on the standard reference materials, the analytical procedure was transferred and applied to laurel leaves sampled in proximity to superhighway and in the Po river mouth area. A critical comparison with spectroscopic measurements is discussed