Determination of copper, iron, manganese and zinc in river and estuarine water by atom trapping-flame atomic absorption spectrometry

A simple method is described for the atomic absorption (AA) determination of Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn in river and estuarine water using two atom trapping techniques: a water-cooled dual silica tube and a commercially available double-slotted quartz tube mounted in an air-acetylene flame. Rapid, accurate analyses can be achieved using continuous aspiration. The concentration detection limits were 0.9, 1.5 and 0.3 ng ml 121 for Cu, Mn and Zn, respectively, using a 2 min in situ preconcentration time with the dual silica tube atom trap and 4.0, 12.1, 2.0 and 1.2 ng ml 121 for Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn, respectively, using the double-slotted quartz tube. The relative standard deviations are of the order of 2.9\u20136.9% for both techniques. The accuracy was assessed by analyses of NRCC SLRS-2 riverine and SLEW-1 estuarine water reference materials. Basic performance characteristics are also given for Ag, Bi, Cd, In, Pb and Tl using the dual silica tube atom trap.NRC publication: Ye