Determination of Trace Lead, Chromium and Copper in Volcanic Ash from Shinmoe-Dake Volcano by Microwave Digestion-Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry

Abstract

Volcanic ash is an important parent material for soil and is easily weathered. Pb, Cr and Cu are the main heavy metals in weathered volcanic ash and are inevitably discharged into the environment and finally harmful to human health. A simple and reliable method for the determination of Pb, Cr and Cu in volcanic ash by microwave digestion combined with Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (GFAAS) has been proposed. The ashing temperatures are 600℃ for Pb, 1000℃ for Cr and 800℃ for Cu. The atomization temperatures are 1800℃ for Pb and Cu, and 2200℃ for Cr. The detection limits of the proposed method are 3.50, 0.92 and 1.22 ng/mL for Pb, Cr and Cu, respectively. The relative standard deviations (RSDs) for eleven replicate analyses (50 ng/mL) of the above three metals are less than 4%, and the recoveries by standard addition are 92.8%-107.0%. The proposed method is rapid and convenient with high accuracy and low cost.

Keywords

• volcanic ash
• heavy metals
• microwave digestion
• graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry
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