Slurry-electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric determination of aluminium and chromium in vegetables using hydrogen peroxide as a matrix modifier

• Published in: Talanta (Oxford) Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 527 - 533
• Main Authors: Vi~nas, P., Campillo, N., Garcia, I.Lopez, Cordoba, M.Hernandez
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.1995; Oxford Elsevier
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Food industries; Fruit and vegetable industries; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Performance evaluation; Electrothermics; Analytical method; Chromium; Aluminium; Vegetable; Chemical contamination; Atomic absorption spectrometry
• ISSN: 0039-9140; 1873-3573
• DOI: 10.1016/0039-9140(95)01429-F

Fast heating programmes for determining aluminium and chromium in vegetables using electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry with slurry sampling are developed using wall atomization. The build-up of carbonaceous residues inside the atomizer is avoided by adding 4% hydrogen peroxide and 1% nitric acid to the slurries instead of using an air-ashing stage. In accordance with fast-programme methodology, the conventional drying and charring steps are replaced by a modified drying stage. simplifying the heating programmes. For suspensions containing 0.1% m/V of ground vegetables, the relative standard deviation (RSD) is about ±5% for aluminium. For chromium determination, the use of 0.5–1% m/V suspensions leads to RSDs close to ±4%. Calibration is carried out using aqueous standards. The aluminium and chromium contents of a number of vegetable samples obtained by using the slurry approach agree with those obtained by means of a conventional procedure based on the total dissolution of the samples. The reliability of the procedures is also confirmed by analysing two certified reference materials.