Microwave-assisted acid digestion procedure for trace elements determination in polychaete chaetopterus variopedatus

Abstract

This study evaluated and applied a microwave-assisted diluted acid digestion to determine trace elements (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni and Sb) in polychaete (Chaetopterus variopedatus) samples. After the optimization of the method with certified reference material (CRM 1566b, Oyster tissue), the analytes were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP OES). Repeatability was adequate (< 10 %), results for CRM agreed with the certified values and the residual carbon content (RCC) values were lower than 15 %. Moreover, up to ten samples can be simultaneously decomposed in 34 min., resulting in a high sample throughput. The developed method was applied to polychaete samples collected from Todos os Santos Bay, Bahia, Brazil.