On-line preconcentration and determination of lead by fibrous alumina and flow injection–atomic absorption spectrometry

Abstract

A rapid on-line preconcentration technique for the determination of lead in waters by flow injection–flame atomic absorption spectrometry had been devised. Preconcentration was based on the deposition of analyte on a fibrous alumina micro-column and subsequent elution by injection of a small volume of nitric acid (250 µl of 1 mol l^–1 acid). Measurement precision at the 5 µg l^–1 level was 4.9% and the limit of detection, based on three times the standard deviation of the blank signal for processing distilled water (15 ml), was 0.7 µg l^–1. The procedure was successfully applied to a range of water samples.