Determination of zinc in small volumes of serum using atomic-absorption spectrophotometry with electrothermal atomisation

Abstract

An atomic-absorption spectrophotometric method with electrothermal atomisation has been developed for measuring zinc in microlitre volumes of serum. The problems of contamination that are associated with the very high dilutions usually required for this analysis are avoided by using a high internal gas flow-rate during atomisation. Matrix effects are overcome by incorporating albumin and sodium chloride with the working zinc standards. The relative standard deviation for the determination of a normal level of zinc in serum of 12 µmol l^–1 is 3.6%, the detection limit is 0.36 µmol l^–1 and the agreement between results obtained by the described procedure and by a routine flame atomic-absorption method is excellent (r= 0.94).