I. Lopezgarcia et al., ARSENIC AND ANTIMONY DETERMINATION IN SOILS AND SEDIMENTS BY GRAPHITE-FURNACE ATOMIC-ABSORPTION SPECTROMETRY WITH SLURRY SAMPLING, Spectrochimica acta, Part B: Atomic spectroscopy, 52(4), 1997, pp. 437-443
Slurry-based procedures for the rapid determination of arsenic and ant
imony in soil and sediment samples by graphite furnace atomic absorpti
on spectrometry are discussed. For the determination of arsenic, the s
amples are suspended in a solution containing dilute hydrofluoric acid
. Sodium hydrogen carbonate is added and aliquots are introduced into
the graphite furnace. A fast heating programme with no pyrolysis step
is used. For the determination of antimony, direct suspension in conce
ntrated hydrofluoric acid is recommended. In this way, the interferenc
e of silicon is avoided and the background level is reduced, allowing
a fast heating programme to be used. The limit of detection of antimon
y for a 100 mg ml(-1) suspension is 0.03 mu g g(-1). The results obtai
ned for five certified reference materials using both direct calibrati
on against aqueous standards and the standard additions method demonst
rate the reliability of the procedures. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.