Use of a quadratic response surface in the polarographic determination of lead

Abstract

By investigating the influence of the instrumental and chemical factors affecting the differential-pulse polarographic measurements of Pb^II and subsequently developing suitable factor and orthogonal designs, a surface response was obtained that allowed the optimization of the response variable, viz., the peak current. In this manner, the polarographic technique was improved in two respects, by increasing its sensitivity (thereby lowering its detection limit) and by shortening the analysis time (the lead concentration was obtained from a single measurement). The results provided by the proposed method are comparable to those afforded by the traditional standard additions method.