NICKEL DETERMINATION IN OSTEOBLAST-LIKE CELL-CULTURE MEDIUM BY ADSORPTIVE CATHODIC STRIPPING VOLTAMMETRY WITH A MERCURY MICROELECTRODE

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of nickel, w hich is an alloying element in commonly used metallic biomaterials, on the biomaterials mineralization process. An electrochemical method wa s developed to quantify this metal ion in osteoblast-like cell culture medium (OST) by performing adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (CSV) with dimethylglyoxime (DMG) al a mercury film microelectrode (MF M). The optimized analytical conditions and tile square-wave CSV param eters for the analysis are: DMG concentration: 500x10(-4) mol L-1; amm onium chloride buffer: 0.10 mol L-1 (pH 9.2); frequency: 50 Hz, amplit ude 20 mV; step: 2 mV; adsorption lime: 10 s, deposition potential: -0 .70 V and reduction potential: -1.20 V. The limit of detection was 7.7 0x10(-9) mol L-1 for an adsorption time of 10 s. The results achieved by CSV using the MFM were compared to those obtained by atomic absorpt ion spectrometry (AAS) to ensure the reliability of the electrochemica l method. The mineralization process was evaluated by biochemical and histochemical assays.