DETERMINATION OF CYANIDE IN WASTE-WATERS USING A QUARTZ-CRYSTAL MICROBALANCE

A method based on a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) was used for the first time to analyse cyanide in real samples. The method was applied to the analysis of waste waters from an electroplating industry. The analysis of replicates of five different samples ranging from 0.931 to 853 mg l(-1) showed relative standard deviations between 1.7% and 9.3 %. There was no evidence of systematic differences between the two set s of results obtained by the QCM method or by the ASTM method. However , the QCM method was faster and needed a sample volume 100 times small er than the ASTM method. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights res erved.