Application of Microwave–Assisted Digestion to Trace Heavy Metal Determination in Sea Sediment Sample

Authors : Cem ESEN, Ahmet BALCİ

Pages : 123-128

View : 19 | Download : 7

Publication Date : 2008-04-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :The main goal of this study is to develop an efficient microwave digestion method for the determination of Pb, Cu, Cr,Co and Zn elements from a sea sediment sample. Microwave acid digestion techniques were investigated to obtaina simple, rapid and safe method for the determination of five trace elements in sediment. Sediment sample was airdried, grinded, sieved ≤ 100 mesh and subjected to digestion. The digests were subsequently analyzed for metalcontent by atomic absorption spectrophotometry AAS . Various combinations and volumes of hydrofluoric, nitric andhydrochloric acids were evaluated for the microwave acid digestion efficiency. Certified reference material GSP-2,geological certified reference material was used in the comparison of these digestion protocols. The microwave aciddigestion with a mixture of 4 mL of 65% HNO3, 1 mL of 37% HCl, 4 mL of 40% HF produced the fastest, safest andaccurate analytical results with a recovery of 75–92% and a precision better than 5% in most cases. Sea sedimentsample whose sampling location was the deep sea discharge of the paper plant in Dalaman, Turkey, was analyzed
Keywords : Sediment, Microwave digestion, Heavy metal determination, Atomic absorption spectrophotometry