Enhancement effect of room temperature ionic liquids on the chemical vapor generation of lead, cadmium and bismuth for thermospray flame furnace atomic absorption spectrometric determination

Abstract

A novel method was developed for the chemical vapor generation (CVG) of lead, cadmium and bismuth based on the enhancement effect of room temperature ionic liquids followed by thermospray flame furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (TS-FF-AAS) determination. Room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) and ammonium pyrroldinedithiocarbamate (APDC) were used as enhancement reagents and chelating reagents for the CVG of lead, cadmium and bismuth, respectively. TS-FF-AAS was used for the determination of lead, cadmium and bismuth. The addition of RTILs led to an improvement of 3.5, 3.0 and 4.0 times the CVG efficiencies of Pb, Cd and Bi, respectively. The efficiencies for the CVG of Pb, Cd and Bi in the presence of RTILs and APDC were 55%, 46% and 60%, respectively. Volatile species of Pb, Cd and Bi were effectively generated through reduction of acidified analyte solutions with KBH₄ in the presence of 0.02% (m/v) APDC and 0.1% (v/v) 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([C₄MIM]BF₄). Some parameters that influenced CVG and the subsequent determinations were evaluated in detail, such as the concentrations of RTILs, APDC, HNO₃ and KBH₄; the flow rates of the carrier gas, lengths of the reaction tube and transfer tube, as well as interferences. Under optimized conditions, the detection limits for Pb, Cd and Bi were 8, 1 and 5 ng mL⁻¹, respectively. Relative standard deviations for five replicate determinations of a standard solution containing 200 ng mL⁻¹ Pb, Cd and Bi were 4.5%, 5.5% and 5.2%, respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied in the determination of Pb, Cd and Bi in certified environmental reference materials with satisfactory results.