Determination of Trace Amounts of Lead by Modified Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometry after Liquid Phase Microextraction with Pyrimidine-2-thiol

Abstract

The liquid phase microextraction (LPME) was combined with the modified Graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) for determination of lead in the water and solid samples. In a preconcentration step, lead was extracted from a 2 ml of its aqueous sample in the pH = 5 as lead-Pyrimidine-2-thiol cationic complex into a 4 µl drop of 1,2 dichloroethane and ammonium tetraphenylborate as counter ion immersed in the solution. In the drop, the lead-Pyrimidine-2-thiol ammonium tetraphenylborate ion associated complex was formed. After extraction, the microdrop was retracted and directly transferred into a graphite tube modified by [W.Pd.Mg] (c). Some effective parameters on extraction and complex formation, such as type and volume of organic solvent, pH, concentration of chelating agent and counter ion, extraction time, stirring rate and effect of salt were optimized. Under the optimum conditions, the enrichment factor and recovery were 525% and 94%, respectively. The calibration graph was linear in the range of 0.01 - 12 µg?L–1 with correlation coefficient of 0.9975 under the optimum conditions of the recommended procedure. The detection limit based on the 3Sb criterion was 0.0072 µg?L–1 and relative standard deviation (RSD) for ten replicate measurement of 0.1 µg?L–1 and 0.4 µg?L–1 lead was 4.5% and 3.8% respectively. The characteristic concentration was 0.0065 µg?L–1 equivalent to a characteristic mass of 26 fg. The results for determination of lead in reference materials, spiked tap water and seawater demonstrated the accuracy, recovery and applicability of the presented method.