Determination of antimony in sediments by Zeeman-corrected electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with ultrasonic slurry sampling

A method was developed for the determination of antimony in slurried sedime nts ton the basis of samples of three Certified Reference Materials) by ele ctrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry (ETAAS) with Zeeman-effect backg round correction. Slurried samples were prepared in 6% nitric acid containi ng 0.02% of Triton X-100. A mixed palladium/magnesium chemical matrix modif ier, L'vov platform atomization and a temperature-time program with a relat ively short (10 s) sample pyrolysis stage were used. The results of the determinations by this technique are in very close agree ment with certified values and the repeatability of this analytical procedu re expressed in terms of relative standard deviation was typically better t han 9% at the slurry concentration of approx. 90 mg/2 mL. The characteristi c mass of Sb (at the spectral line 231.1 nm) was 25.6 pg and the limit of d etection (calculated for 100 mg/2 mL slurry) was about 0.04 mu g/g.