Simple and rapid analytical procedures for the ETAAS determination of
Cd and Pb in plant (poplar, clover, plantain) leaves an described. Opt
imal conditions are presented for the wet digestion of plant matrices
with a mixture of nitric acid and hydrogen peroxide along with optimal
temperature programmes for subsequent modifier-foe electrothermal det
ermination of Cd and Pb. Slurry preparation procedures using tetrameth
ylammonium hydroxide or a mixture of 1 mol/L HNO3 + 1.5 mol/L H2O2 are
proposed as another approach for rapid and accurate routine analysis
of Cd and Pb in plant leaves. It has been found that single standard a
ddition can be used for quantitative determination in the case of wet
digestion ETAAS and standard addition to each analysed matrix is recom
mended in the case of slurry ETAAS. For all plant leaves investigated
good agreement was achieved between the concentrations determined by w
et digestion ETAAS and slurry ETAAS. The wet digestion method provides
relative standard deviations for Cd ranging from 3% to 17% and for Ph
from 2% to 16%, For the slurry method the RSD values are in the range
of 4-31% for Cd and 4-30% for Pb, depending for both cases on the mag
nitude of the measured concentrations. Validity and versatility of the
methods are verified by the analyses of standard reference materials.