A procedure using slurry sampling for the determination of manganese in corn flour by ET AAS

Abstract

A fast and simple procedure is proposed for determination of manganese in corn flour samples employing slurry sampling and electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry. To evaluate the particle size scanning electron microscopy was used. Slurries were prepared by weighing approximately 100 mg of sample, adding 0.014 mol L⁻¹nitric acid, and a solution containing 1% Triton X-100. An ultrasonic bath was employed for slurry homogenization. Analytical variables including temperature program of the graphite furnace, nitric acid concentration, amount of sample and sonication times were studied. The pyrolysis and atomization temperatures established during the optimization step were 1200 and 2100 °C, respectively, using 10 μg Pd + 3 μg Mg as the chemical modifier. The limits of detection and quantification obtained were 0.006 and 0.020 μg g⁻¹, respectively. A characteristic mass of 0.97 pg was obtained. The precision was evaluated for a sample containing 2.17 μg g⁻¹ of manganese and 2.6% relative standard deviation was found (n = 10). The accuracy was assessed by the analysis of two certified reference materials: NIST SRM 1568a—Rice Flour and CRM 189—Wholemeal Flour. Some experiments demonstrated that the calibration can be performed employing the external calibration technique using aqueous standards. For comparison and validation of the procedure proposed, the samples were also analyzed after complete decomposition and determined by ETAAS and good precision was obtained (at 95% confidence level). In this way, no statistical difference was observed between the results obtained by both the procedures performed. The proposed procedure has been applied for manganese determination in six samples acquired in supermarkets of Salvador (Brazil) and values varied from 0.623 to 2.17 μg g⁻¹.