Multicommutation flow analysis with chemiluminescence detection: application to the chromium(III) determination

The study deals with the application of multicommutation flow analysis for determination of Cr(III) concentration in environmental samples at a trace level. The detection method was based on the luminol-H2O2 chemiluminescence reaction in basic aqueous solution using Cr(III) ions as a catalyst. The experimental part of investigation focused on the optimization of equipment conditions, i.e. reagent flow rate, injected sample volume and the work of solenoid valves. The specificity of the method was tested with respect to selected heavy metal ions. The presented method allowed determination of Cr(III) over the range from 2.5 to 50ng*cm-3, with a low detection limit (under optimum conditions: 0.15ng*cm-3). Multicommutation is one of the best methods of analytical procedure automation. The main advantages of multicommutation method, compared with classical flow injection analysis (FIA), is the ability to achieve more repeatable analytical signal, which in turn allows to improve the method precision (relative standard deviation, RSD, was 1.8% for 10 determinations of 20ng*cm-3 Cr(III)). Moreover, it is excellent from the point of view of environmental protection because it offers very low reagent consumption: luminol 0.26; H2O2 2.16; sample 0.15 (cm3 per peak). The sampling rate was about 90 samples*h-1